UC-NRLF 


3bO 


IMS 


ByJOH$  G  I]  .-.''SHAW'  and 
Seigean.1  WII  LIAM  LYNCH 


(Saliisfcato 


TRENCHING    AT    GALLIPOLI. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 


THE 
MAN   IN  THE  EANKS 


BY 


JOHN  GALLISHAW 

Late  First  Newfoundland  Regiment 
(Gallipoli,  1915} 


AND 


WILLIAM  LYNCH,  U.S.  ARMY 

Sergeant  Instructor  R.O.T.C.,  Plattsburg,  N.Y. 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

f£re?£  Cambri&0e 
1917 


COPYRIGHT,    1917,    BY   HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN    COMPANY 
ALL   RIGHTS    RESERVED 

Published  September  iqi'j 


CONTENTS 

I.   GETTING  STARTED  RIGHT       .      3 

PRACTICAL   SUGGESTIONS    FOR    THE 
NEW  RECRUIT. 

GOING  TO  CAMP  :  WHAT  TO  TAKE 
AND  WHAT  NOT  TO  TAKE. 

II.   THE  FIRST  DAYS  IN  CAMP     .     14 

How  TO  MAKE  YOURSELF  COMFORT- 
ABLE. 

SOME  ORIGINAL  REMARKS   ON  THE 
SUBJECT  OF  DISCIPLINE. 

III.  MARKSMANSHIP 36 

PLAIN,  UNTECHNICAL  HINTS  ON  SE- 
LECTING A  GOOD  RIFLE. 

How  TO  BETTER  YOUR  SCORE. 

IV.  KEEPING  FIT 49 

WHY  GOOD  HEALTH  is  GOOD  BUSI- 
NESS. 

V.   A  SUCCESSFUL  SOLDIER      .       .     63 

As  THE  SERGEANT  SEES  HIM. 


vi  CONTENTS 

VI.  A    TALK    ON    PERSONAL    CON- 
DUCT       . 75 

WHAT  THE  WORLD  EXPECTS  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  SOLDIER. 

A   FRANK   CONVERSATION   ON   THE 
QUESTION  OF  WINE  AND  WOMEN. 

VII.  TIPS  FROM  THE  TRENCHES    .     85 

THE  TACTICS  OF  THE  ALLIES  AND 
OF  THE  GERMANS  CONTRASTED. 

HOW  TO  LlVE  IN  THE  TRENCHES. 

THINGS    TO    REMEMBER    NOT    TO 
FORGET 97 

DIARY  .  101 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
CHAPTER  I 

GETTING  STARTED  RIGHT 

To  begin  with,  you  must  try  to  accustom  Get 
yourself  at  once  to  an  entirely  new  outlook  ** 
on  life.  No  more  are  you  the  ordinary  aver- 
age, easy-going,  irresponsible  young  man. 
From  now  on  you  are  a  soldier  of  Uncle  Sam, 
privileged  to  represent  the  United  States  of 
America  in  the  greatest  war  that  has  ever 
been  fought  for  struggling  humanity,  against 
the  most  formidable  enemy  that  has  ever 
menaced  civilization.  From  now  on  you 
must  think  as  a  soldier.  Once  you  have 
taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United 
States  you  hold  yourself  at  her  disposal,  to 
follow  wherever  she  beckons,  and  to  go 
wherever  she  bids.  And  in  going,  remember 


4  TIIE   MATS    IN   THE   RANKS 

The       that  you  go  as  a  soldier,  and  that  you  must 
of  your  be  ready  to  leave  at  the  shortest  notice. 
V^k      That  means,  of  course,  that  you  must  carry 
with  you  only  such  equipment  as  is  abso- 
lutely necessary,  since,  when  a  soldier  on  ac- 
tive service  leaves  one  camp,  he  seldom  re- 
turns there.  So  in  the  selection  of  the  things 
to  take  to  camp  with  you,  you  must  be 
guided  by  that  consideration.  When  you  add 
anything  to  your  equipment,  you  add  it  to 
the  weight  of  your  pack.    But  sometimes  the 
pleasure  or  comfort  you  get  from  some  article 
far  outbalances  the  extra  weight. 
Things       There  are  certain  essentials,  of  course,  that 
must      vou  can>t  possibly  get  along  without,  such 
have       as  soap  for  washing  and  shaving,  toothbrush, 
tooth-powder,  razor,  comb,  and  pocket  mir- 
ror. But  there  are  other  little  extras  that  go 
with  these  which  occur  at  once  to  the  ex- 
perienced campaigner,  but  not  to  the  novice 
until  he  has  struggled  along  without  them 


THE   MAN   IN  THE   RANKS          5 

for  a  while.  For  instance,  try  throwing  your  Extras 
comb  and  brushes  and  your  tooth-paste  and  a£d  to 
soap  into  a  cardboard  box  or  a  bag.  See  what  comfort 
condition  they  will  be  in  at  the  end  of  the 
week.   You  are  not  going  into  this  thing  for 
a  week  or  so;  you  are  in  for  "the  duration 
of  the  war."   Whether  that  time  is  going  to 
feel  long  or  short  to  you  depends  on  how 
comfortable  you  can  make  yourself. 

You  will  find  it  infinitely  convenient  to  The 
take  with  you  a  waterproof  bag  to  hold  your 
toilet  articles.  Among  these  toilet  articles 
you  should  have  a  small-sized  rubber  sponge, 
which  will  be  awfully  handy.  Get  an  alumi- 
num holder  for  your  soap,  as  aluminum  is 
light  and  stronger  than  celluloid.  To  pro- 
tect your  toothbrush  you  should  have  a 
holder:  it  will  keep  the  bristles  clean  and 
save  them  from  being  crushed.  If  you  have 
some  special  preference  in  tooth-paste,  you 
had  better  take  that  with  you,  but  you  will 


6  THE   MAN   IN   THE   RANKS 

The         find  eventually  that  the  best  thing  is  tooth- 

prooj       powder  in  a  tin  can.    The  trouble  with  the 

bv         tubes  of  tooth-paste  is  that  some  one  is  sure 

to  come  into  your  tent  and  sit  down  on  your 

kit  bag,  and  smear  the  tooth-paste  over 

everything  near  it. 

All  these  things  should  go  into  your  little 
waterproof  bag,  together  with  your  razor, 
your  shaving-soap  (which  must,  of  course, 
have  a  stiff  metal  covering),  your  hairbrush, 
and  your  comb.  These  constitute  the  barest 
essentials  for  keeping  clean.  But  simply 
Keeping  keeping  clean  does  not  presuppose  a  neat, 
smart  appearance.  You  must  have  a  shoe- 
polishing  outfit;  black  polish  for  black  shoes, 
and  tan  for  russet  shoes.  One  piece  of  rag 
to  daub  the  polish  on  with,  and  another  to 
give  the  final  shine  to  the  shoes,  will  be  bet- 
ter than  brushes  and  easier  to  carry.  Then 
buttons  are  always  being  lost  from  trousers, 
and  you  won't  be  able  to  have  them  sewed 


THE  MAN  IN  THE   RANKS          7 

on  at  home  as  you  have  been  accustomed  to.   Bachelor 
So  you  won't  find  many  things  so  convenient 
and  so  nearly  indispensable  as  some  "bach- 
elor buttons."    The  best  kind  are  the  ones 
that  have  a  little  spring  on  the  center  of  the 
button,  as  they  are  interchangeable  and  can 
be  worn  on  different  pairs  of  trousers.  Also 
you  will  be  astonished  to  find  how  often 
shoestrings  break  or  become  so  knotted  that  Extra 
you  have  to  cut  them.   So  a  few  extra  pairs  It™' 
of  shoestrings  won't  be  amiss.    That  just 
about  covers  the  list  of  things  you  really 
rawsfhave,  but  a  few  little  extras  will  add 
greatly  to  your  comfort. 

You  will,  of  course,  have  a  number  of  Writing 
letters  to  write,  and  with  this  in  mind  you 
should  take  along  a  pad  of  thin,  onion-skin 
paper,  because  it  is  light  and  therefore  al- 
lows you  to  carry  a  lot,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  saving  in  postage.  A  fountain  pen  you 
will  find  almost  indispensable,  but  the  great 


8  THE   MAN   IN   THE   RANKS 

Ink  trouble  with  that  is  the  necessity  of  carrying 
ink.  You  can  avoid  this  by  taking  along 
ink  pellets  which  dissolve  in  water,  or  if  that 
is  too  much  trouble,  you  can  write  your 
letters  with  an  indelible  pencil.  Later,  on 
actual  active  service,  you  will  have  to  do  it. 
Matches  Somehow  or  other  almost  every  one  forgets 
match-  ^°  bring  matches,  so  if  you  outfit  yourself 
safe  with  a  nice  little  metal  match  safe,  filled  with 
matches,  you  not  only  have  matches,  but 
you  have  begun  the  habit  of  keeping  them  in  a 
waterproof  holder.  When  you  have  been  out 
on  a  listening  patrol  in  No  Man's  Land  for 
three  or  four  hours  some  cold,  wet  night  and 
want  a  few  good-night  puffs  when  you  crawl 
under  your  blanket,  you  '11  thank  your  lucky 
stars  that  you  formed  that  habit.  Another 
thing  you  will  find  of  great  assistance  is  a 
Electric  little  pocket-size  electric  torch.  Some  night 
you'll  come  in  late  when  your  tent-mates  are 
asleep  and  everything  is  dark.  Then  your 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS  9 

torch  will  show  you  your  way  to  your  blan-  Electric 
kets  without  disturbing  the  entire  tent.  And 
if  you  survive  your  first  experience  of  waking 
a  tentful  of  sleeping  men,  you'll  be  glad  you 
brought  that  torch.  You  might,  if  you  have 
room,  take  along  some  safety  pins,  although 
you  will  probably  find  enough  of  these  in  the 
little  "housewife"  with  which  the  Govern- 
ment provides  you.  But  the  articles  suggested 
are  the  things  you  should  have  with  you 
when  you  start  for  camp. 

In  starting  for  camp  you  must  bear  in  mind  Wear 
that  you  are  very  soon  to  be  in  uniform.  So  ^L° 
it  behooves  you  not  to  take  along  your  best  to  camP 
suit  of  civilian  clothes.  You  will  find  yourself 
somewhat  limited  for  room  at  first,  and  all 
your  extra  clothing  will  have  to  be  folded  in 
a  compact  bundle.   Therefore  the  best  thing 
to  wear  is  a  suit  of  old  clothes,  or,  better  still, 
if  you  are  fortunate  enough  to  possess  one, 
some  kind  of  uniform.  By  far  the  most  impor- 


10         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Wear  tant  thing  is  the  kind  of  shoes  you  wear.  Go  to 
XLw  camp  in  old,  comfortable  ones,  and  when 
to  camp  your  new  military  shoes  are  issued  to  you 
by  the  Quartermaster's  Department,  be  sure 
that  they  are  a  size  larger  than  the  ones  you 
wore  as  a  civilian.  Don't  mind  if  they  make 
your  feet  look  a  little  bigger.  After  you  have 
been  a  little  while  drilling  and  sleeping  in  the 
open  air,  your  muscles  will  have  hardened  and 
your  appetite  will  have  increased  so  that  the 
rest  of  you  will  grow  to  match  your  feet.  If 
you  value  your  comfort  and  well-being,  get 
started  right  the  first  few  days  in  camp. 

First  Those  first  few  days  in  camp  are  going  to 

camp  mean  a  great  deal  to  you.  If  you  can  get 
over  the  first  week  or  two  without  blistered 
feet  or  a  ragged  temper  you  will  be  all  right. 
But  everything  depends  on  how  pleasant  you 
make  the  life  at  first.  And  of  course  that  de- 
pends largely  on  your  disposition.  You  will 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         11 

find  many  little  inconveniences  at  the  begin-  First, 
ning.  For  instance,  at  home  when  you  want 
to  shave  in  the  morning  you  go  into  the 
bathroom,  turn  on  the  hot  water,  rub  on  a 
little  soap,  strop  your  razor  or  put  a  new 
blade  in  your  "safety,"  scrape  it  over  your 
face  a  few  times,  and  presto,  you  are  shaved. 
In  camp  you  will  find  it  different.  One  of 
your  troubles  will  be  that  you  can't  get  the 
hot  water  that  you  have  been  accustomed  to 
look  upon  as  a  matter  of  course  at  home;  but 
if  you  are  a  little  farsighted  in  getting  your 
equipment  before  starting,  you  need  not 
suffer  much  from  this.  Take  to  camp  with 
you  a  little  tin  of  alcohol  that  mounts  on  a 
folding,  three-legged  tripod.  These  alcohol 
outfits  can  be  obtained  at  any  good  hard- 
ware store.  Tripod  and  tin  together  are 
compact  enough  to  be  carried  in  the  ordi- 
nary pocket.  They  cost  very  little,  and  you 
can  scarcely  afford  to  be  without  them. 


12         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

First      After  you  have  tried  shaving  in  cold  water 

campH  f°r  a  little  time  vou  ^11  learn  the  value  of 
such  an  outfit  and  how  much  it  contributes 
to  your  physical  comfort. 

Physical  comfort,  however,  although  it 
counts  a  very  great  deal,  is  not  everything. 
The  basis  of  this  whole  business  of  being  a 
soldier  is,  of  course,  your  mental  attitude. 
You  will  need  above  everything  else  to  be 
patient.  It  is  the  greatest  virtue  you  will 
acquire  from  the  army.  Don't  kick  if  things 
don't  seem  to  go  well  at  first.  Remember  that 
getting  a  million  men  together  is  a  big  un- 
dertaking —  a  tremendous  undertaking.  Re- 
member that  it  has  to  be  done  under  many 
disadvantages.  If  some  things  don't  go 
wrong  at  first  it  will  be  providential.  All  the 
other  nations  have  found  that  getting  large 
bodies  of  soldiers  trained  was  far  from  easy. 
In  many  ways  you  will  be  much  better 
situated  than  the  soldiers  of  other  nations. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS          13 
They  did  not  even  have  equipment  enough,  First 

t    .  -i  •  •  n  • .  •  days  in 

or  clothing,  or  rifles,  or  ammunition,  or  c^m 
even  tents.  Compared  with  the  recruits  in 
England  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  you 
will  be  royally  housed  and  fed  and  equipped. 
Every  American  soldier  going  into  camp  will 
be  completely  equipped  —  uniform,  pack, 
rifle,  bayonet,  and  camping  outfit! 


CHAPTER  II 
THE   FIRST   DAYS   IN   CAMP 

The  one       You  are  a  soldier  for  only  one  real  reason. 
Reason      ^he  United  States  must  help  to  win  the  war 

you  are     against  Germany.  It  is  up  to  you  as  a  good 
a  soldier 

American  to  do  your  level  best  to  help  the 

country  win.  You  have  a  chance  to  help  by 
taking  an  interest  in  your  training  and  doing 
well  the  job  you  have  to  do.  Don't  think  that 
simply  because  you  have  become  a  soldier 
your  duty  is  done.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it 
has  just  begun.  Don't  get  into  your  head  the 
idea  that  wearing  the  uniform  absolves  you 
from  further  effort.  You  can  be  a  slacker 
in  spite  of  the  uniform  —  even  a  greater 
slacker  than  the  civilian. 
A  great  From  the  minute  you  put  on  khaki  you  are 

machine  .        ,  .  -7 

depends    a  Part  °*  a  nu&e  organization.    You  are  a 
on  you     single  cog  in  a  great  machine  made  up  of 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         15 

millions  of  cogs,  working  for  one  end.  It  will  A  great 
be  judged  efficient  on  only  one  basis —  depends 
ability  to  conquer  the  enemy.  That  machine  on  y°u 
is  dependent  on  its  cogs,  and  if  one  is  weak 
the  burden  falls  on  the  rest.  Remember  that 
everything  you  learn  of  military  value  helps 
your  squad.  Remember  also  that  if  you  are 
backward  in  learning,  you  are  holding  back 
your  squad.  If  your  squad  is  held  back,  so  is 
the  platoon  of  which  it  is  a  part.  The  pla- 
toon in  turn  holds  back  its  company,  and  so 
on  up  through  all  the  steps.  You  cannot  take 
refuge  in  the  excuse  that  you  are  just  one 
man,  and  that  out  of  a  million  men  one  man 
matters  not  at  all.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  dis- 
tinctly up  to  you.  You  must  take  a  sincere 
and  honest  interest  in  your  work  and  make 
every  effort  to  do  well  the  task  assigned  you. 
Otherwise  you  are  not  only  keeping  back  a 
vast  organization,  but  you  are  distinctly 
helping  the  enemy.  If  you,  as  a  soldier,  loaf 


16         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
A  great        on  your  job  in  time  of  war,  you  are  a  traitor. 
depends       You  are  just  as  much  an  enemy  of  the  United 
on  you         States  as  any  German. 
Your  From  now  on  you  have  one  job  to  do  and 

one  standard  to  attain:  you  must  reach  the 
highest  point  of  efficiency.  Keep  in  mind 
always  that  the  military  system  of  this 
country  is  the  result  of  a  great  deal  of  study. 
Men  have  given  their  whole  lives  to  perfect- 
ing that  system.  If  there  are  some  things  in 
it  that  do  not  seem  to  you  quite  right  —  have 
Learn  patience.  Wait  and  see.  But  while  you  are 
all  the  ^  waiting,  learn  all  you  can.  Make  yourself 
formations  familiar  with  the  drill  regulations.  Every 
good  soldier  should  know  all  the  formations. 
Some  time  you  will  have  to  learn  them  all. 
If  you  study  them  in  advance,  you  will  un- 
derstand more  clearly  the  reason  for  them 
when  the  time  comes.  If  you  know  why  you 
are  doing  a  thing,  it  is  infinitely  easier  to  do 
it  than  if  you  do  it  blindly. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         17 

After  you  have  spent  a  few  weeks  doing  Don't 
squad  drill,  you  will  think   that   so  much 


practice  is  unnecessary.    You  will  feel  that  that  . 

practice 

you  can  never  know  it  any  better.  Possibly  is  not 
you  will  be  quite  outspoken  in  your  com- 
ments. In  your  case,  very  likely  this  is  true 
—  YOU  may  never  know  it  any  better.  But 
remember  that  you  are  not  the  only  man  in 
your  squad.  Remember  that  your  squad  is 
only  as  strong  as  its  weakest  man.  It  has  to 
move  as  a  complete  unit,  it  cannot  do  so  un- 
til every  man  knows  the  formations  and  does 
them  automatically.  That  is  one  of  the  hard- 
est lessons  to  learn,  but  once  learned  it  will 
save  you  much  worry. 

Remember  that  everything  depends  on  the  The 
mastery  of  that  close-order  drill.    It  is  the  Inclose- 
basis  of  all  the  other  movements.   You  can-  ^^  dnl1 
not  execute  the  extended  formations  without 
it.  You  must  creep  before  you  walk.   Every 
movement  in  the  whole  drill  manual  is  the 


18         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
The  result  of  years  of  study.  Everything  is  done 

ike  dot*-    m  ^e  quickest  way  —  and  the  easiest.    If 
order  drill  vou  doubt  this,  try  to  do  any  of  the  move- 
ments some  easier  way.  It  will  be  interest- 
ing —  and  very  enlightening. 

Team  Before  you  have  been  very  long  in  camp, 

™°hole  6  y°u  ^^  learn  that  everything  depends  on 
story  team  work.  As  far  as  you  are  concerned, 
your  immediate  partners  in  the  team  are  the 
other  men  in  your  squad.  You  will  have  to 
live  with  them,  drill  with  them,  march  with 
them,  eat  with  them,  and  sleep  with  them. 
With  that  in  mind,  don't  form  any  snap 
judgments.  The  man  who  seems  to  be  a 
grouch  may  be  naturally  shy.  Perhaps  he  is 
a  quiet  man,  who  ordinarily  has  little  to  say. 
Again,  he  may  be  simply  lying  low  and  sizing 
you  up.  For  a  little  while,  at  any  rate,  just 
suspend  judgment.  Give  yourself  a  little 
time  before  condemning  any  of  them.  Be  as 
considerate  of  them  as  you  hope  they  will  be 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS          19 

of  you.    In  the  meantime,  while  things  are   Team 
slowly  shaping  themselves,  don't  be  afraid  " 


that  you  are  doing  more  than  your  share.         story 

Learn  to  do  your  share  of  the  work.  That  Do  your 
is  one  of  the  hardest  lessons  for  the  new 


recruit.  The  beginning  of  trouble  in  a  tent  cheerfully 
comes  when  the  rest  of  the  men  feel  that  one 
man  is  not  doing  his  part.  The  best  way  to 
avoid  this  is  for  the  man  in  charge  of  the  tent 
to  make  a  list  of  the  men.  From  this  list  de- 
tail one  man  each  day  to  do  the  ordinary 
work  of  the  tent.  Let  him  pick  up  paper, 
keep  the  tent  clean,  and  do  the  sort  of  fatigue 
work  which  is  really  the  business  of  no  one 
in  particular,  but  which  must  be  done. 

Try  to  create  a  feeling  of  pride  in  your 
tent.  Make  it  the  neatest  one  on  the  com- 
pany street.  Don't  be  content  to  let  things 
go  along  in  a  slipshod  way.  Be  a  little  bit 
better  than  the  tents  next  you.  Get  some 
flat  stones  and  put  them  in  front  to  make  a 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 


Do  your 
full  share 
and  do  it 
cheerfully 


Get  all 
the  sleep 
you  can 


Obedience 
'prompt 
and  cheer- 
ful and 
intelligent 


little  entrance.  Use  these  stones  as  a  kind  of 
doormat  and  boot-scraper.  This  will  keep 
you  from  carrying  a  lot  of  mud  into  your 
tent,  and  save  a  lot  of  cleaning. 

At  night,  don't  stay  awake  talking  after 
"lights  out."  You  need  all  the  sleep  you  can 
get.  Not  only  do  you  suffer  yourself,  but  you 
keep  your  tent-mates  awake.  If  you  take  all 
this  in  the  proper  spirit,  you  will  do  these 
things  cheerfully  and  take  a  pride  in  them. 
You  will  be  proud  of  the  showing  of  your 
tent.  Unless  you  do  this,  you  will  find  the  life 
of  a  soldier  galling,  and  grow  to  hate  it  cor- 
dially. 

Never  forget  that  your  first  duty  is  obedi- 
ence. Above  all,  remember  that  obedience  is 
useless  unless  it  is  prompt.  The  keynote  of 
the  army  is  prompt  and  cheerful  obedience. 
But  no  matter  how  prompt  you  are  in  obey- 
ing an  order,  or  how  cheerfully  or  willingly 
you  set  about  it,  unless  you  know  how  to  do 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         21 

it  right,  it  is  useless.  Simply  doing  what  you  Obedience 
are  told  to  do  cheerfully  and  at  once  is  not 


enough.  You  should  learn  to  do  things  with-  ful  and 

intelligent 

out  waiting  to  be  ordered.  For  instance, 
learn  as  soon  as  you  can  the  meaning  of  all 
the  different  bugle-calls.  Each  one  has  a 
different  message  and  a  distinct  use. 

One  of  the  quickest  ways  to  become  a  good  Learn 

the 

soldier  is  to  learn  the  language  of  the  drill  ianguage 
regulations.  This  is  especially  worth  doing  if 
you  have  any  hope  of  becoming  a  non-com. 
Experts  have  cut  out  of  the  drill-regulation 
language  every  unnecessary  word.  The  com- 
mands are  the  quickest  way  of  letting  a 
soldier  know  exactly  what  you  want  him  to 
do.  In  this  war  casualties  are  very  large  and 
promotion  is  quick.  Even  if  you  are  not  a 
regularly  appointed  non-com,  an  enemy  shell 
may  promote  you,  leaving  you  in  charge  of  a 
number  of  men.  If  you  happen  to  be  charg- 
ing, and  have  reached  the  enemy's  barbed 


22  THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
Learn  wire,  upon  your  coolness  and  clear-headed- 
language  ness  depend  the  lives  of  your  comrades.  It  is 
at  such  a  time  that  the  shouting  of  some  order 
in  the  language  of  the  drill  regulations  con- 
vinces your  men  that  you  are  calm  and  cool. 
There  is  nothing  else  so  calculated  to  inspire 
troops  with  a  feeling  of  complete  confidence 
in  their  leader.  They  feel  that  you  are  master 
of  the  situation.  On  the  other  hand,  if  they 
do  not  receive  the  order  in  the  words  that 
they  have  grown  accustomed  to,  they  will 
instinctively  hesitate.  Never  before  was 
there  so  much  truth  in  the  old  saw  that  "he 
who  hesitates  is  lost."  Every  minute  they 
wait  a  machine-gun  can  pump  nearly  six 
hundred  bullets  into  them. 
Your  As  an  independent  and  democratic  Ameri- 

relations  .„  „     ,  .    ,        ,  ,.         ,          , 

with  your  can  vou  w^"  ^n<^  *t  nard  to  realize  that  there 
superior    are  very  clearly  marked  lines  between  you 

officers 

and  your  superior  officers.    The  non-com- 
missioned officer  will  be  one  of  your  big 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         23 

troubles  unless  you  act  sensibly.  Especially   Your 
will  this  be  so  in  the  new  national  army, 


which  will  be  short  of  trained  non-coms,  superior 

officers 
This  means  that  some  of  them  will  have  to  be 

drawn  from  the  new  men.  You  will  find  it 
galling  at  first  to  take  orders  from  a  man  who 
apparently  is  not  any  better  able  to  give 
them  than  you  are.  But  it  must  be  done. 
The  sooner  you  realize  it,  the  easier  it  will  be 
for  you.  Here  again  you  will  need  the  great 
new  trait  that  you  are  bound  to  acquire  :  the 
invaluable  virtue  of  patience. 

If  your  non-com,  is  not  fitted  for  his  job,  Don't 
just  wait  a  little  while.  He  is  sure  to  be  found  wase 

any  time 

out.    Meanwhile  don't  waste    time    grum-  grumbling 

bling.  Go  on  and  learn  all  you  can  yourself, 

so  that  you  may  be  fit  for  promotion  when  it 

comes  your  way.  If  you  feel  that  your  non- 

com.  is  not  treating  you  fairly,  just  grin  and 

bear  it.   Don't  forget  for  a  minute  that  you 

are  in  one  of  the  biggest  undertakings  of  the 


24         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Don't         times.  Things  are  sure  to  get  adjusted  before 

waste 

anytime      Very  long. 

grumbling  Your  problem  with  the  commissioned 
officer  is  much  simpler.  All  you  have  to  do  is 
to  obey  his  orders.  You  may  feel  absolutely 
certain  that  any  officer  who  is  granted  a  com- 
mission in  the  new  army  is  thoroughly  quali- 
fied to  give  such  orders.  Not  even  Germany 
has  set  such  a  high  standard  for  commis- 
sioned officers.  Your  job  is  to  do  your  work 
as  well  as  the  officer  does  his.  Other  than  that 
you  have  simply  to  treat  him  with  courtesy. 
That  is,  when  you  speak  to  him  you  must  call 
him  "Sir."  That  is  no  more  than  you  would 
do,  in  civilian  life,  for  the  man  you  work  for. 
Some  men  object  to  saluting  an  officer  whom 
they  dislike,  or  against  whom  they  have  some 
special  grudge.  This  should  n't  count  at  all. 
You  are  not  saluting  the  man.  You  are  pay- 
ing a  compliment  to  the  uniform  he  wears. 
There  are  a  few  essentials  about  saluting 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         25 
that  may  help  you.    Not  only  should  you  Saluting 


salute  all  officers  of  the  regular  army  and  of  * 


the  militia,  but  you  should  salute  all  officers  and  when 

you 

of  the  marine  corps  and  the  navy.  Salute  needn't 
also  all  officers  of  the  armies  and  navies  of  our 
allies.  When  the  national  colors  are  uncased, 
they  also  are  entitled  to  a  salute.  When  you 
have  your  hat  off,  you  should  not  salute,  but 
if  you  have  to  talk  to  an  officer,  come  to  at- 
tention before  addressing  him.  Stay  at  at- 
tention until  you  have  finished  your  business 
with  him  or  until  he  directs  you  otherwise. 
If  you  pass  an  officer  when  you  are  at  the 
double,  don't  salute.  Don't  salute  in  a 
theater,  street-car,  or  restaurant.  In  places 
like  that  it  is  n't  necessary.  It  is  inconven- 
ient for  an  officer  to  return  the  salute,  and  it 
makes  you  both  conspicuous.  When  you  are 
doing  fatigue  work,  you  don't  have  to  salute. 
If  an  officer  comes  into  the  room  when  you 
are  at  meals,  don't  salute.  Simply  stop 


26         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
Saluting     eating  and  talking  until  he  tells  you  to  go 

when  you      ,        , 
should         ahead- 

and  when       Non-coms,  are  not  entitled  to  a  salute. 

you 

needn't  You  must  salute  everybody  from  a  second 
lieutenant  up.  You  can  tell  the  different 
grades  by  the  shoulder-strap  or  shoulder- 
loop  of  officers. 

A  general  wears  a  coat  of  arms  and  two 
stars. 

A  lieutenant-general  has  two  small  stars 
and  one  large  one. 

A  major-general  has  two  silver  stars. 

A  brigadier-general  has  one  silver  star. 

A  colonel's  insignia  is  a  silver  spread  eagle. 

A  lieutenant-colonel  wears  one  silver  leaf. 

A  major  wears  a  gold  leaf. 

A  captain  wears  two  silver  bars. 

A  first  lieutenant  wears  one  silver  bar. 

A  second  lieutenant  can  be  distinguished 
by  his  hat-band,  or,  if  he  wears  a  cap,  by  the 
braid  on  it. 


THE   MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         27 

The  grade  of  non-commissioned  officers  is 
shown  by  the  chevrons  on  their  sleeves. 

In  the  old  days,  when  an  officer  had  more  Don't 
time  than  he  has  at  present,  he  could  keep  your 
in  touch  in  a  friendly  way  with  his  men.  Now  °fficer 

with 

that  conditions  at  the  front  are  changing  al-  trivial 
most  daily,  the  officer's  job  gets  harder  all 
the  time.  Therefore  bother  him  as  little  as 
possible  and  only  with  very  important  mat- 
ters. During  the  first  few  days  in  camp  there 
will  be  so  much  organizing  to  do  that  the 
officer  will  be  swamped  with  work.  So  if  you 
have  anything  to  bring  to  his  attention,  talk 
it  over  first  with  your  non-com.  Perhaps  he 
can  help  you  out.  Do  not  make  it  any  harder 
for  your  officer  than  you  can  help.  Show  him 
that  you  wish  to  cooperate  with  him.  One 
way  to  do  this  is  to  keep  yourself  always  as 
neat  as  possible.  Don't  annoy  him  by  com- 
ing on  parade  all  mussed  up.  If  by  any 
chance  your  uniform  gets  torn,  mend  it  right 


28         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Don't  away.  Don't  leave  your  quarters  with  your 
your  blouse  unbuttoned  or  your  collar  unhooked, 
officer  an(j  (J011't  ever  appear  in  breeches  without 

with 

trivial  your  leggings.  When  you  wear  your  leggings, 
be  sure  that  they  are  clean.  If  they  are 
leather,  polish  them,  and  keep  your  canvas 
ones  scrubbed.  You  will  find  your  officers 
down  on  men  who  are  slovenly.  Therefore, 
if  there  is  a  man  in  your  tent  who  is  inclined 
to  be  careless  of  his  appearance,  make  him 
spruce  up.  Of  course  you  must  do  this  in  as 
tactful  a  way  as  possible.  Try  not  to  hurt  his 
feelings  while  you  are  doing  it.  This  is  some- 
thing you  have  to  be  very  careful  about.  If 
you  bully  a  man,  you  are  liable  to  be  kept  in 
the  guardhouse  until  you  apologize  to  him  in 
the  presence  of  his  commanding  officer. 
Quarreling  of  any  kind  is  severely  discour- 

Dont  ,,. 

$  ht      aged  among  soldiers. 

till  you       jf  vou  feej  vou  must  fight,  wait  until  you 

get  to 

France   get  to  France.    You  will  find  a  good  many 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         29 

Germans  there  who  are  willing  to  accommo-  Dont 
date  you.   If  you  cannot  wait  until  then,  be  titt  you 

sure  to  select  an  opponent  from  among  the  9?  io 

France 

enlisted  men.  Any  non-com,  from  any  branch 
of  the  service  is  over  any  enlisted  man.  It  is 
also  a  good  plan  to  pick  out  a  man  you  feel 
absolutely  certain  you  can  lick.  Take  him  to 
a  quiet  place  where  you  are  sure  no  officer 
will  interrupt  you,  because  any  officer  can 
stop  a  disturbance  among  enlisted  men.  He 
can  order  them  into  clink.  If  you  strike  a 
superior  officer,  it  is  a  very  serious  offense. 
If  the  officer  cares  to  push  the  charge,  such 
an  offense  is  punishable  by  death. 

Another  thing  you  will  find  rather  hard  is  A  pass  — 
to  stay  in  camp  unless  you  have  a  pass.  You  £LLT> 
may  go  about  the  surroundings  of  the  camp,  camP 
but  under  the  articles  of  war  if  you  are  found 
a  mile  away  from  it  without  a  pass  you  are 
liable  to  court-martial.  Therefore  be  careful 
to  get  a  pass  before  you  leave,  unless  you 


30         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

A  pass  —  wish  to  be  escorted  back  by  the  military  po- 

or  stay         ,. 

close  to  llce-  H  by  any  chance  one  of  these  gentry 
camp  wno  jg  arresting  another  man  calls  on  you  for 
assistance,  give  it.  Don't  let  a  mistaken  sense 
of  loyalty  to  a  comrade  prevent  you.  Such 
refusal  would  only  get  you  into  trouble,  and 
be  of  no  help  to  him.  Besides,  it  is  a  severe 
breach  of  discipline. 

The  The  necessity  for  discipline  is  something 

necessity    ^e  independent  American  from  civil  life 

for  strict    finds  hard  to  grasp.  It  was  a  hard  lesson  for 
discipline 

the  British  colonials.  For  months  after  they 

had  become  masters  of  their  drill  and  forma- 
tions, they  were  held  back  from  going  to  the 
front  because  they  were  not  disciplined.  Of 
one  regiment  the  inspecting  general  said: 
"This  is  the  finest  body  of  men  I  have  ever 
seen,  but  the  most  undisciplined."  That 
regiment,  solely  to  acquire  discipline,  had  to 
remain  in  training  another  three  months, 
while  their  friends  went  to  the  front.  It  was  a 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         31 

great  blow.  But  even  in  spite  of  that  they   The 
did  not  learn  the  true  meaning  of  discipline.  necessny 
In  order  to  get  to  the  front  sooner,  they  car-  f°?  ^nct 

discipline 

ried  out  all  orders  promptly.  As  a  result  of 
this,  at  their  final  inspection,  Lord  Kitchener 
pronounced  them  "Just  the  men  I  want  for 
the  Dardanelles."  When  they  did  reach  the 
front,  instead  of  profiting  by  this  lesson,  they 
resumed  their  lawless  behavior,  They  boasted 
that  they  would  obey  only  such  orders  as 
they  liked.  Consequently,  in  their  first 
attack  on  the  enemy  lines,  when  they  were 
told  to  take  three  lines  of  trenches,  instead  of 
stopping  at  the  third  trench,  they  continued 
to  the  fourth  and  fifth.  Meanwhile  their  own 
artillery  received  the  signal  that  the  third 
line  had  been  taken.  So  it  elevated  its  fire 
to  demoralize  the  fleeing  enemy  in  the  rear 
trenches.  In  this  hail  of  fire  the  colonial 
troops  were  caught  and  almost  the  whole 
regiment  was  wiped  out.  From  that  day  to 


32         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

this  the  survivors  carry  out  strictly  the  orders 
they  receive. 

Initiative  Of  course,  strict  obedience  to  orders  means 
ingenuity  more  t^ian  doing  simply  just  what  you  are 
told.  You  should  endeavor  to  use  initiative 
and  ingenuity  whenever  possible.  It  is  this 
added  initiative  that  makes  the  good  soldier. 
It  was  just  such  individual  ingenuity  that 
enabled  the  British  at  Gallipoli  to  hold  the 
Peninsula  against  an  overwhelming  Turkish 
force.  One  soldier  was  out  in  No  Man's  Land, 
watching  for  enemy  snipers.  In  the  darkness 
many  of  the  wily  enemy  were  able  to  slip  by 
him.  When  a  bullet  splintered  the  illumi- 
nated dial  of  his  wrist  watch,  he  devised  a 
scheme  to  trap  them.  On  the  bushes  at  the 
farther  side  of  the  path  which  the  snipers  had 
to  use,  he  placed  some  of  the  fragments. 
Then,  retiring  to  a  distance,  he  trained  his 
rifle  on  them  and  waited.  As  soon  as  they 
were  obscured  he  knew  that  one  of  the  enemy 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         33 

was  passing,  and  pulled  the  trigger.  Later  he  Initiative 
expanded  this  scheme  by  using  sticks  coated  i 
on  one  side  with  phosphorescent  paint.    In 
this  way  he  was  able  to  keep  that  section  of 
the  trench  entirely  free  from  snipers. 

This  was  not  the  only  case  in  which  inge- 
nuity helped.  It  also  enabled  the  British  to 
evacuate  the  Peninsula  of  Gallipoli  with  a 
loss  of  only  two  men  killed  and  one  wounded 
in  their  entire  force.  They  got  off  in  two 
hours  without  being  suspected.  It  was  not  till 
the  second  day  after  that  the  Turks  really 
found  out.  It  took  a  great  deal  of  cleverness 
to  devise  the  scheme  that  would  let  the  evac- 
uation take  place  secretly,  since  the  four 
miles  from  the  trenches  to  the  shore  was  over 
ground  that  afforded  no  cover.  As  soon  as 
the  troops  knew  they  were  to  leave,  they 
ripped  up  the  sandbags  and  broke  the  glass 
in  the  periscopes,  to  make  them  useless  to  the 
enemy.  If  the  Turks  began  to  investigate 


34         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
Initiative  while  the  British  were  between  their  trenches 
ingenuity  anc^  ^e  shore,  it  might  mean  annihilation. 
At  first  it  was  planned  to  leave  a  small  party 
scattered  through  the  trenches.    They  were 
to  be  sacrificed  so  that  their  comrades  might 
escape. 

But  an  Australian  solved  the  problem. 
He  attached  the  broken  periscopes  to  the 
parapet.  The  Turks,  looking  over,  would  see 
these  above  the  trench  just  as  they  would 
any  ordinary  day  at  the  front.  Then  he  took 
a  number  of  rifles,  lashed  them  at  different 
points  along  the  parapet,  and  put  a  cartridge 
in  each.  Each  loaded  rifle  he  cocked  ready  to 
fire.  From  the  trigger  he  suspended  a  bully- 
beef  tin  weighted  with  sand  almost  heavy 
enough  to  pull  the  trigger.  On  the  top  of  the 
rifle  he  placed  another  tin  filled  with  water. 
From  a  small  hole  in  the  bottom  of  this  the 
water  dropped  slowly,  making  the  lower  one 
heavy  enough  to  press  the  trigger.  By  having 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         35 

the  tins  of  different  weights,  he  arranged  it  Initiative 
so  that  the  rifles  did  not  all  explode  at  once.  ingenuny 
Then  the  troops  moved  off  silently,  piled 
aboard  the  warships  waiting  for  them  in  the 
bay,  and  steamed  away.  All  that  night  the 
firing  continued  at  intervals,  and  kept  up  all 
the  next  day.  The  Turks,  taking  their  usual 
cautious  survey,  saw  the  periscopes  above 
the  parapets.  Every  little  while  a  bullet  sang 
over  their  trenches.  To  them  it  looked  like 
what  the  official  reports  call  "A  quiet  day  on 
the  Eastern  front." 


CHAPTER  III 

MARKSMANSHIP 

Learn  AT  the  front  your  best  friend  is  your  rifle. 

Therefore,  treat  it  always  as  such.  Some 
day  it  is  going  to  be  the  only  thing  between 
you  and  death.  When  your  rifle  is  issued  to 
you,  lose  no  time  in  examining  it.  Look 
at  the  back-sight  leaf  to  see  that  the  joint 
is  firm  and  that  the  leaf  is  not  bent. 
Move  the  slide  back  and  forth  a  few  times. 
Make  certain  that  it  moves  smoothly  and 
fits  firmly  on  the  leaf.  Be  sure  that  the  "U" 
is  not  deformed.  Look  closely  at  the  lines  in- 
dicating the  different  ranges;  see  that  they 
are  clearly  marked.  Also  look  carefully  at  the 
fore-sight  to  make  sure  that  it  has  not  been 
bent  or  twisted.  Rifle  sights  are  very  deli- 
cately adjusted,  and  are  easily  bent  or  dam- 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         37 

aged.   Always  take  special  care  to  see  that  Learn 

£          j        TJ?  y°ur 

they  are  in  perfect  order.   It  your  score  ever 

suffers,  have  the  sights  inspected  by  the  ser- 
geant instructor  of  musketry. 

You  will  have  issued  to  you,  with  your  rifle, 
some  flannel  patches.  These  are  cut  to  fit 
the  bore  and  are  used  for  cleaning  it.  Be- 
sides these,  you  will  get  some  salsoda,  some 
heavy  grease  called  "cosmic,"  and  some  oil. 
As  soon  as  your  rifle  is  issued,  take  out  the 
bolt  and  look  up  at  the  sun  through  the 
barrel.  If  the  inside  glints  clear  and  bright, 
it  is  all  right.  If  there  are  any  signs  of  rust,  go 
immediately  to  the  rifle-cleaning  rack.  There 
you  will  find  the  barrack  cleaning-rod.  Soak 
some  of  the  patches  in  a  solution  of  salsoda 
in  water.  Then  with  the  cleaning-rod  push 
a  piece  of  the  wet  flannel  in  the  breech  end  of 
the  bore.  Run  it  back  and  forth  several 
times,  and  when  one  patch  is  dirty,  put  in  a 
new  one.  When  you  have  done  this  with 


38         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Learn         several,  dry  the  bore  out  with  dry  patches. 

^horou^ly  Then  hold  your  rifle  UP  against  the  light. 
This  time  look  through  it  from  the  muzzle 
end  for  metal  fouling:  it  looks  like  flakes  or 
lumps  the  color  of  silver.  Don't  attempt  to 
remove  it,  but  take  the  rifle  to  the  quarter- 
master sergeant.  He  will  send  it  to  the 
artificer  to  be  cleaned.  But  if  the  bore  is 
bright,  dip  a  clean  patch  in  the  cosmic,  and 
run  it  through  until  the  bore  is  coated.  When 
you  are  using  your  rifle  for  drill  purposes,  and 
not  for  shooting,  always  keep  the  bore  cov- 
ered with  this  coating  of  cosmic.  Before 
putting  your  rifle  away,  wipe  it  off  with  the 
heavy  oil,  and  oil  the  bolt  very  lightly  with 
A  dirty  the  other  oil.  Examine  your  rifle  frequently 
rifle  is  to  gee  y,  jt  nee(js  ciean}ngp  This  is  a  very  good 

a  cn,7fi6 

habit,  because  on  active  service,  to  have  a 
dirty  rifle  is  a  great  crime.  You  should  in- 
variably clean  it  after  you  have  fired  it,  and 
after  it  has  been  rained  upon.  Never  let  it 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RA^Kg.,  :  ,&)    ''/:-. 
stay  wet  for  any  length  of  time.   The  longer  A  dirty 
the  rust  stays  on,  the  harder  it  is  to  get  off.  ™  clime 
When  you  get  in  the  trenches,  cut  the  toe  off 
an  old  sock  and  put  it  over  the  bolt.  ;This 
keeps  it  from  getting  filled  with  mud  or  sand. 
This  simple  trick  will  save  you  a  great  deal  of 
cleaning. 

Before  loading  your  rifle,  take  particular 
pains  to  learn  the  correct  loading  positions, 
lying,  standing,  and  kneeling.  Don't  think  a 
lot  of  things  the  musketry  instructor  insists 
upon  are  unnecessary.  The  army  authorities 
have  been  experimenting  for  years,  and  have 
decided  that  a  number  of  well-defined  mo- 
tions and  positions  are  the  most  effective. 

Remember,  the  most  important  point  is  to  Keep 
keep  your  eye  on  the  mark. 

The  only  time  you  should  allow  your  eye  to  tfie 
leave  the  mark  is  when  you  have  to  adjust 
your  sights;  then  only  for  the  shortest  possi- 
ble time.  Even  when  you  are  taking  the  cart- 


49         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Keep  ridges  from  your  equipment,  you  will  have  to 
^yTon  ^°  ^  by  feeling.  This  is  hard  at  first,  but  very 
the  mark  much  worth  learning.  After  a  while  you  will 
become  so  expert  that  you  will  do  it  auto- 
matically. The  reason  for  doing  it  is  that  at 
the  front  a  man  in  uniform  is  a  very  indis- 
tinct mark.  He  merges  easily  into  the  land- 
scape. And  unless  you  keep  your  eye  on  him 
constantly,  he  gets  away  from  you.  The 
small  fraction  of  a  minute  that  you  transfer 
your  eye  from  your  enemy  to  your  ammuni- 
tion pouch  may  be  long  enough  for  him  to 
get  to  some  concealment  from  which  he  may 
snipe  you.  It  may  seem  silly  at  first,  but  it 
is  not.  The  training  you  receive  now  you  are 
to  utilize  in  battle.  Your  foe  is  notable  for 
his  thoroughness.  He  is  compelled  to  master 
every  detail.  He  has  learned  from  experience 
the  value  of  concealing  himself  quickly.  If 
you  can  keep  your  eye  on  him  while  you  load 
your  rifle,  you  give  him  no  chance  to  get 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS-        4i 

away.  After  you  have  had  a  little  duel  with  Keep 
some  sniper,  you  will  begrudge  every  second  y™on 
you  take  to  look  at  your  sights.  It  is  at  such  the  mark 
times  you  will  be  glad  you  learned  the  details 
of  your  training. 

Practice  altering  and  fixing  your  sights.  Practice 
Experience  in  adjusting  them  is  very  valua- 


ble.  Unless  your  range  is  right,  you  lose  the 
effect  of  fire.  If  you  practice  enough,  at  mo- 
ments of  stress  and  danger  you  will  adjust 
your  sights  without  thinking  about  it.  Un- 
less your  sights  are  right  your  bullets  are  use- 
less, no  matter  how  correctly  you  have  aimed. 

Correct  aiming  is  one  of  the  hardest  things  Correct 
to  learn.  Next  to  keeping  your  eye  on  your 
mark,  remember  to  adjust  your  rifle  to  your 
eye,  not  your  eye  to  your  rifle.  This  saves  a 
great  deal  of  unnecessary  moving  about,  and 
is  by  far  the  quickest  and  most  effective  way. 

Therefore  in  aiming,  when  you  have  car- 
ried the  rifle  to  your  shoulder,  place  the  butt 


;  te : ,  '•  ,THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Correct  close  to  your  cheek.  Keep  your  face  back  as 
ing  far  as  possible  from  your  trigger  hand.  The 
farther  back  your  face  is,  the  more  clearly 
you  will  see  the  sights.  Apart  from  the  good 
effect  this  will  have  on  your  shooting,  you 
will  find  it  the  most  comfortable  position. 
It  eases  the  strain  on  your  head  and  neck, 
and  makes  you  feel  the  recoil  very  little. 

In  aiming,  the  back-sight  must  be  kept  up- 
right. (This  does  not  mean  that  the  leaf  must 
be  raised.)  Then  close  your  left  eye  and  align 
your  sights  on  the  direct  center  of  the  lowest 
part  of  the  mark.  The  bull's-eye  should  appear 
as  if  balanced  on  the  top  of  your  sights.  You 
need  the  low  point  of  aim  to  get  a  clear  view 
of  the  mark.  This  is  especially  true  when 
you  aim  at  a  target  which  is  hard  to  see,  like 
a  man  in  uniform.  Also,  an  ordinary  bull's- 
eye  target  on  a  range  tips  a  little  toward  you. 
This  necessitates  aiming  down  to  alter  the 
elevation,  because  the  upper  part  of  the  tar- 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         ^ 

get  is  slightly  nearer  than  the  bottom  part.   Correct 
At  the  front  you  must  aim  low,  as  the  man 
you  are  aiming  at  is  generally  coming  toward 
you.   Consequently  he  is  nearer  you  by  the 
time  you  squeeze  the  trigger. 

By  aiming  at  the  very  bottom  of  your 
target,  you  save  yourself  from  the  mistake  of 
the  average  recruit.  He  keeps  his  eye  focused 
on  the  fore-sight.  This  allows  it  to  obscure 
part  of  the  target.  You  should  keep  your  eye 
on  your  mark  all  the  time,  because  if  the  eye 
is  focused  on  the  fore-sight  it  retains  only  a 
very  blurred  image  of  the  object.  You  are 
likely  to  make  this  mistake  because  you  will 
begin  by  aiming  at  a  stationary  target,  with 
a  black  bull's-eye  on  a  white  ground,  which  is 
very  easy  to  see.  Therefore,  with  your  target 
plainly  in  view,  and  sure  not  to  move  away, 
you  concentrate  on  the  adjustment  of  your 
fore-sight. 

When  you  fire  at  the  ordinary  range  target, 


••&'        THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Correct  this,  of  course,  makes  little  difference,  but 
later  you  will  wish  you  had  learned  the  cor- 
rect way  at  first.  At  the  front  you  will  have 
to  fire  at  natural  features  of  the  ground  like 
the  tops  of  ridges.  Harder  than  that  is  firing 
at  the  parapet  of  a  trench  which  the  enemy 
has  done  his  best  to  conceal.  And  most  im- 
portant of  all,  you  will  have  to  fire  at  troops 
in  neutral-tinted  uniforms  against  a  dull 
background.  Under  the  best  of  circumstances 
these  are  hard  targets  to  locate,  and  a  single 
soldier  is  still  harder.  One  thing  is  certain: 
whether  such  troops  are  stationary  or  mov- 
ing, if  you  wish  to  hit  them  you  must  focus 
on  the  target,  not  on  the  fore-sight.  You  must 
watch  the  target  closely  while  you  fire.  That 
is  why  it  is  so  important  to  have  your  sights 
carefully  adjusted  and  your  rifle  accurately 
aimed. 

The  But  no  matter  how  carefully  and  accu- 

tngger 

squeeze  rately  your  sights  are  adjusted  and  your  rifle 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         45 

aimed,  it  is  all  labor  wasted  if  your  trigger-  The 
pressing  is  faulty.  This  disturbs  your  aim  at  sq 
the  very  moment  of  discharge.  The  chief 
thing  to  remember  about  pressing  the  trigger 
is  to  squeeze  it  so  slowly  and  gradually  that 
the  report  comes  as  a  surprise  to  you.  While 
you  press  the  trigger,  breathe  easily  and 
naturally.  Deep  breaths  disturb  your  aim. 

Be  most  careful  not  to  touch  the  trigger 
before  the  rifle  is  against  your  shoulder;  and 
while  you  are  firing,  retain  a  firm  grip  with 
both  hands.  This  makes  the  butt  rest  firmly 
in  the  hollow  of  your  shoulder.  Unless  the 
butt  is  firm,  accurate  shooting  is  impossible. 

At  the  front  you  will  have  to  fire  at  single  Shooting 
men  or  troops  crossing  in  front  of  you.  This 
is  hard  to  do.  First  aim  at  the  object,  then 
following  it  sideways,  carry  your  aim  in  ad- 
vance of  it  until  you  fire.  If  a  man  walks 
across  your  front  at  any  distance  less  than 
five  hundred  yards,  aim  about  a  foot  in  front 


46  THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
Shooting  of  him  for  each  hundred  yards.  If  he  is 
objects  doubling,  aim  about  two  feet  in  front.  Your 
aim  should  be  about  three  feet  in  front  of  a 
trotting  horse,  and  if  he  is  galloping,  four 
feet  in  front  for  each  hundred  yards.  It  has 
been  pretty  well  proved  in  this  war  that  only 
an  expert  shot  can  hit  a  single  man  at  much 
over  three  hundred  yards.  And  so,  to  fire  at 
anything  less  than  a  body  of  troops  beyond 
close  range  is  a  waste  of  ammunition  for  the 
ordinary  soldier.  If  you  ever  fire  at  a  body  of 
troops  moving  toward  a  flank,  aim  at  the 
head  of  the  column. 

Experience  in  Europe  has  shown,  however, 
that  beyond  six  hundred  yards  individuals 
accomplish  very  little,  even  when  they  fire 
at  a  large  body  of  troops.  Whether  due  to 
excitement,  fatigue,  or  other  causes,  inaccu- 
rate fire  increases  with  distance.  Beyond  six 
hundred  yards,  officers  with  field-glasses  de- 
termine the  ranges  and  direct  collective  fire. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         47 

Then  fire  in  volume  is  sufficient  to  make  up  Shooting 
for  errors  of  individuals,  and  to  obtain  fire  Oyecte  " 
effect. 

There  will  be  times  at  the  front  when  much 
will  depend  on  your  ability  to  shoot  rapidly 
and  continuously.  When  you  are  firing  to  re- 
pulse a  surprise  attack,  there  will  not  be  time 
even  to  alter  your  sights.  To  take  time  to  do 
it  under  such  conditions  would  be  futile,  and 
lead  to  the  loss  of  fire  effect.  Therefore  you 
will  have  to  aim  up  or  down.  There  is  no 
fixed  rule  for  this;  you  can  learn  it  by  prac- 
tice; but  if  you  have  to  aim  more  than  three 
feet  higher  or  lower,  it  is  far  better  to  take 
the  time  to  alter  your  sighting.  Don't  forget, 
too,  that  in  firing  from  cover  you  must  keep 
your  eye  on  the  enemy  between  shots,  to 
avoid  losing  sight  of  him.  Always  get  as  near 
as  you  possibly  can  to  the  cover  you  are  fir- 
ing from.  Don't  fire  over  it,  but  try  your  best 
to  fire  round  the  side  of  it. 


48         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
Shooting        Remember,  always,  that  in  all  these  prac- 

at  moving      .  .    .         f 

objects   "    tlces  y°u  are  training  lor  real  war.    When 

you  fire  in  the  open,  keep  this  especially  in 
mind. 


CHAPTER  IV 
KEEPING   FIT 

A  HEALTHY  man  is  hard  to  kill.  That  is  Keep 

•fit 
why  it  is  so  important  for  you  to  keep  fit. 

"Keep  your  feet  warm,  your  head  cool,  and 
your  stomach  light."  This  is  the  advice  the 
old-fashioned  doctors  gave  your  grandfath- 
ers in  the  Civil  War.  In  this  war  we  have 
added  a  fourth:  "Keep  yourself  clean."  If 
you  follow  these  rules  you  are  bound  to  keep 
in  good  physical  shape.  In  the  daytime  it  is 
easy  enough  to  keep  cool.  If  the  sun  is  very 
hot,  put  some  wet  leaves  in  your  cap.  If  you 
can't  get  wet  leaves,  dampen  your  handker- 
chief instead.  Keeping  cool  at  night  is  a  little 
harder  matter,  especially  where  a  number  of 
men  sleep  together.  In  barracks  be  sure  that 
the  room  you  sleep  in  gets  lots  of  fresh  air. 


50         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
Keep  Unless  you  have  a  free  current  of  air,  you 

•fii 

breathe  the  same  air  over  and  over.  Keep  all 
the  windows  wide  open,  so  the  air  can  cir- 
culate. The  quicker  you  begin,  the  quicker 
you'll  get  used  to  it.  It's  better  to  put  on  a 
few  extra  clothes  the  first  night  or  two  than 
to  wake  up  every  morning  with  a  dark-brown 
taste  in  your  mouth.  When  you  get  into  the 
trenches  you  will  have  to  sleep  in  the  open 
air.  So  don't  be  afraid  of  open  windows. 
Nobody  ever  caught  cold  from  sleeping  out- 
doors. The  men  in  the  trenches  never  have 
colds. 

Not  much  harm  can  come  to  you  if  you 
keep  your  body  clean  and  your  lungs  filled 
with  good  fresh  air.  The  physical  instructors 
know  this.  That  is  why  they  give  you  gym- 
nastic drills  to  make  you  sweat  hard  and 
breathe  deeply.  Besides  this,  these  exercises 
are  good  for  most  of  your  muscles.  But  if  you 
are  wise,  you  will  play  games  that  use  some 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         51 

other  muscles.  Running  is  good  exercise,  be-  Keep 
cause  it  makes  the  blood  circulate  through 
your  leg  muscles.  Rowing  is  a  great  deal 
better.  Swimming  is  the  best  of  all;  it  uses 
all  the  muscles.  In  addition,  it  teaches  deep 
breathing.  Besides  this,  it  has  another  ad- 
vantage: you  combine  a  bath  with  your  ex- 
ercise. Every  time  you  exercise,  be  sure  to 
take  a  bath  afterward  to  wash  off  the  sweat. 
Don't  ever  let  it  dry  on  if  you  can  help  it;  it 
clogs  your  pores.  Unless  these  pores  are  open, 
the  waste  matter  can't  get  out.  Instead,  it 
stays  in  your  system  to  poison  it.  Your  sweat 
glands  help  you  to  get  rid  of  the  waste  matter 
which  your  bowels  and  other  excretory  or- 
gans fail  to  carry  off.  These  glands  work 
hardest  at  night.  That  is  why  you  should  not 
sleep  in  the  same  clothes  you  wear  in  the  day- 
time. It  is  a  reason,  too,  for  taking  a  bath  as 
often  as  you  can. 

It  is  not  much  good  to  take  a  bath  unless 


52         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Keep  you  change  your  dirty  clothes  at  the  same 
time.  Neither  is  it  much  good  to  change 
your  dirty  clothes  unless  you  take  a  bath. 
But  if  you  ever  get  a  chance  to  do  one  and 
not  the  other,  remember  that  half  a  loaf  is 
better  than  no  bread. 

Keeping  your  body  clean  includes,  of 
course,  taking  care  of  your  hair.  If  you  are 
sensible  you  will  keep  it  fairly  short,  espe- 
cially when  you  go  into  the  trenches.  Then 
you  should  have  it  clipped.  You  should  be 
particular  not  to  use  any  one  else's  comb  or 
brush.  If  you  ever  borrow  a  razor,  get  it  from 
some  one  whose  skin  is  not  pimply  or  sore. 
The  Government  issues  a  towel  to  you.  You 
should  keep  this  for  your  own  use  alone. 
Remember  that  among  a  large  number  of 
men  some  of  them  may  have  some  kind  of 

Do  your  skin  disease. 

own  About  the  camp  you  will  find  many  agents 

laundry 

work        for  laundries,  who  pester  you  to  give  them 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         53 

your  laundry  work.  But  if  you  are  wise  you  Do  your 
won't.  It  is  much  better  to  do  it  yourself,  for  iaun^ry 
two  reasons :  first,  you  will  have  to  do  it  when  work 
you  are  on  actual  service;  second,  —  and  far 
more  important,  —  these  laundries  will  wash 
your  clothes  with  the  clothes  of  the  other  sol- 
diers in  camp.  In  that  way  you  run  a  great 
rish  of  catching  some  skin  disease,  like  itch  or 
ringworm;  or  some  body  vermin  from  the 
other  man's  undershirt  may  take  a  standing 
jump  to  yours  when  the  laundry  makes  it  too 
hot  for  him.  A  good,  healthy,  well-nourished 
flea  will  jump  eleven  times  his  own  length 
just  for  the  fun  of  jumping.  Science  is  not 
yet  far  enough  advanced  to  estimate  how 
far  he  can  jump  under  the  urging  of  boiling 
water. 

You  should  be  particularly  careful  to  wash 
your  own  towel.  In  the  laundry  the  discharge 
on  the  clothing  of  a  person  having  syphilis 
may  get  on  your  towel  and  give  you  that 


54         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Do  your  disease.    Don't  let  any  one  who  has  gonor- 

°laundry  r^ea  use  your  towel-  You  may  get  some  of 
the  discharge  into  the  mucous  membrane  of 
your  eye,  nose,  or  mouth. 

While  we  are  on  this  subject  of  gonorrhea, 
remember  that  there  is  only  one  way  to  con- 
tract it,  or  what  is  generally  known  as 
"clap";  that  is,  by  sexual  intercourse  with  an 
infected  woman.  You  can  get  a  gonorrheal 
infection  in  the  mucous  membrane  of  your 
eye,  nose,  or  mouth.  But  that  is  n't  clap. 
No  matter  what  stories  you  hear  to  the 
contrary,  you  cannot  get  clap  from  a  strain 
caused  by  heavy  lifting.  That  may  be 
enough  to  bring  on  a  return  of  it  to  a  man 
who  has  not  been  wholly  cured;  but  it  cannot 
cause  it.  Neither  can  you  get  it  from  the 
seat  of  a  water-closet.  But  you  can  get  from 
the  seat  of  a  water-closet  some  very  active 
and  annoying  vermin  commonly  known  as 
"  crabs."  Therefore,  when  you  sit  on  a  water- 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         55 
closet  that  is  used  by  a  great  many  men,  it  is  Do  your 

£  own 

a  wise  precaution  to  put  a  covering  of  paper  iaun^ry 
on  the  seat,  as  a  barrier  to  these  unwelcome  work 
visitors.  If  you  should  be  unfortunate  enough 
to  be  nominated  as  their  host,  buy  a  very 
simple  and  cheap  preparation  called  "Blue 
Ointment."  Any  druggist  will  sell  it  to  you, 
and  it  is  very  helpful  in  speeding  the  parting 
guest. 

A  good  many  people  will  tell  you  that 
syphilis  can  also  be  contracted  from  the  seat 
of  a  water-closet.  But  syphilis  is  a  blood 
disease,  and  you  cannot  catch  it  in  this  way, 
unless  your  skin  is  broken,  or  pimply,  or  cut. 
If  you  have  a  cut  on  your  lip,  you  can  get 
syphilis  from  using  the  same  cup  with  a 
person  who  has  it.  Even  in  using  his  shaving- 
brush  you  are  taking  a  big  chance,  since  it 
will  carry  the  germs  to  your  face,  and  if  you 
cut  yourself,  these  germs  will  get  into  your 
blood. 


56         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Trench  In  the  trenches  your  great  trouble  will  be 
sand-lice  and  itch.  There  is  nothing  you  can 
do  to  prevent  these  lice  from  coming.  But 
you  won't  mind  them  so  much  if  you  sprinkle 
your  underwear  with  plenty  of  insect  powder. 
Itch  is  caused  by  a  parasite,  and  is  very  pain- 
ful. If  you  are  unlucky  enough  to  get  it,  go 
at  once  to  the  doctor  or  the  Red  Cross  man 
and  get  a  box  of  sulphur  ointment.  Keep 
rubbing  it  on  until  the  itch  stops. 
Don't  Besides  the  germs  you  may  get  from  some 
ewith  one  else,  it  is  easy  to  carry  germs  into  your 

dirty      system  by  eating  with  dirty  hands.  Don't  be 
hands 

foolish  about  this.  It  is  a  good  deal  easier  to 

wash  your  hajids  before  meals  than  it  is  to 

get  over  an  attack  of  typhoid  or  dysentery. 
Take          All  the  care  you  take  in  cleaning  the  out- 
^the      side  of  your  body  will  do  you  no  good  if  your 
stomach  stomach  is  not  right.  Your  stomach  is  likely 

to  suffer  most  while  you  are  on  the  march. 

Don't  smoke  while  you  are  marching.  Smok- 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS        57 

ing  will  make  your  throat  dry,  and  will  cause   Take 
you  to  feel  very  thirsty.    Above   all,  don't  Ot  the 
chew  tobacco.  If  you  must  chew,  chew  gum.  stomacfl 
Gum  keeps  you  from  being  thirsty,  and  be- 
sides that,  takes  away  your  desire  to  smoke. 
When  your  body  is  overheated  from  march- 
ing, you  will  be  tempted  to  drink  more  water 
than  is  good  for  you.  Only  one  thing  causes 
dysentery  or    enteric   faster  than  drinking 
water  when  you  are  overheated.   That  one 
thing  is  fruit.  So,  no  matter  how  uncomfort- 
able you  may  feel,  remember  that  it  is  not  a 
circumstance  to  the  way  you  would  feel  if  you 
had  enteric  or  dysentery. 

In  the  Gallipoli  campaign  the  British  army  Drinking 
lost  ninety  thousand  men  through  sickness.  l 
Half  this  loss  could  have  been  prevented  if 
the  men  had  been  more  careful  about  the 
kind  of  water  they  drank. 

Before  you  start  on  a  long  march,  fill  your 
water-bottle.  Drink  as  little  of  it  as  possible, 


58         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Drinking  and  be  sure  not  to  drink  from  any  well  or 
spring  on  the  side  of  the  road.  Keep  this  in 
mind  for  two  reasons.  The  first  is,  it  is  a 
good  way  to  prepare  yourself  for  life  on  the 
firing  line.  When  you  get  to  the  trenches 
you  will  be  given  a  canteen  full,  and  that  is 
all  you  will  get  until  your  next  issue.  In 
France  water  is  very  precious.  The  second  rea- 
son is  that,  unless  the  water  is  pure,  it  is  apt 
to  make  you  sick.  When  you  are  overheated 
from  marching,  your  body  will  not  be  able  to 
fight  the  germs  and  throw  off  the  sickness 
they  cause.  The  purest  kind  of  water  is  rain- 
water. But  if  you  get  rain-water,  be  sure 
that  the  vessel  you  get  it  in  has  been  scalded. 
Melted  snow-water  is  almost  as  good  as  rain- 
water, because  snow  freezes  up  in  the  pure 
air.  Don't  think,  however,  that  you  should 
eat  snow  when  you  are  thirsty.  This  is  very 
bad,  and  does  a  great  deal  more  harm  than 
good.  The  heat  your  body  uses  in  melting 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         59 

the  snow  causes  more  thirst  than  the  water  Drinking 
quenches.  A  lot  of  people  have  the  idea  that 
water  is  pure  because  it  is  spring  water.  But 
that  is  not  true  of  every  spring.  In  places 
where  the  soil  is  poor  and  thin,  with  a  bed- 
rock of  granite,  spring  water  is  generally  all 
right.  In  other  places,  where  the  soil  is  thick 
and  rich  and  there  is  no  hard  rock,  the  water 
is  apt  to  be  bad.  That  is  why  it  is  so  danger- 
ous to  drink  water  from  any  old  place.  In 
France  almost  all  the  wells  have  been  poi- 
soned by  so  many  dead  bodies  lying  around.  Look 

Bad  water  is  not  the  only  thing  that  will  °UQ^ 
cause  stomach  trouble.    Most  of  the  stom-  teeth 
ach  trouble  in  this  country  is  caused  by  poor 
teeth.    One  of  the  best  ways  to  keep  your 
stomach  in  order  is  to  care  for  your  teeth.  In 
this  war,  where  the  ration  is  largely  hard 
biscuit,  a  lot  depends  on  how  good  your  teeth 
are.  You  should  brush  them  every  morning 
and  night  at  the  very  least.  If  you  are  at  all 


60         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Look  particular,  you  will  brush  them  oftener.  To 
your  do  this  right  takes  from  three  to  five  minutes. 
Just  rubbing  the  tooth-brush  over  the  front 
of  your  teeth  is  not  enough.  The  whole  pur- 
pose of  brushing  them  is  to  get  rid  of  food 
deposits.  Besides  the  teeth,  you  should  brush 
the  gums,  the  back  of  the  tongue,  and  the 
whole  inside  of  your  mouth.  This  makes 
your  gums  firm  and  healthy,  and  improves 
the  circulation  of  the  blood.  After  you  have 
brushed  your  teeth,  rinse  your  mouth  thor- 
oughly with  clean  water.  Sometimes  the 
brushing  does  not  dislodge  all  the  food  de- 
posits. When  this  happens  you  should  use 
either  a  quill  toothpick  or  some  dental  floss. 
Keep  your  tooth-brush  clean,  and  sterilize  it 
frequently  in  very  hot  water.  If  constant 
cleaning  does  not  help  your  teeth,  you  should 
see  a  dentist  or  the  medical  officer. 

Your  value  as  a  solider  is  based  largely  on 
your  ability  to  march.  Your  ability  to  march 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         61 

depends  almost  altogether  on  the  condition   You  can't 
of  your  feet.   Keep  your  feet  perfectly  clean.  right 
Wash  them  every  day.  Be  sure  that  your  toe-  unless 

your 

nails  are  clipped  and  clean.    Don't  let  them  feet  are 
grow  into  your  toes,  or  don't  let  them  get  so  ^ 
long  that  they  wear  through  your  socks.  The 
best  socks  to  wear  are  woolen  ones,  not  too 
thick.   Be  sure  that  they  fit.   Don't  have 
them  too  tight,  because  this  pulls  the  heel 
too  far  forward,  and  makes  a  wrinkle.  If  they 
are  too  large,  there  will  be  more  wrinkles. 
On  a  march  every  wrinkle  means  a  blister. 

The  first  thing  you  should  do  after  you  get 
in  from  a  march  is  to  look  to  your  feet.  See 
that  any  blisters  that  may  have  formed  are 
attended  to  at  once.  Get  one  of  the  Red 
Cross  men  attached  to  your  company  to 
stick  a  needle  through  the  blister  to  let  the 
water  out.  After  that,  have  it  painted  with 
iodine.  Don't  try  to  do  it  yourself,  as  an  un- 
sterilized  needle  may  cause  infection.  It  will 


62         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

You  can't  save  you  a  great  deal  of  pain,  and  will  keep 

right          your  foot  from  being  poisoned. 

unless  Don't  let   your  feet   trouble   you   long. 

your 

feet  are  If  you  have  corns,  you  can  be  pretty  sure  that 
you  wear  the  wrong  kind  of  shoes.  Show 
them  to  the  medical  officer  and  tell  him 
how  they  affect  your  feet.  He  will  fix  you  up. 
Under  ordinary  conditions,  keep  your  feet 
warm  and  dry.  If  you  get  them  wet,  change 
your  shoes  and  socks  the  first  chance  you  get. 

When  you  are  in  your  quarters,  do  not  spit 
on  the  floor.  This  is  one  way  in  which  you 
can  cooperate  with  the  doctors  and  prevent 
the  spread  of  disease. 

Remember  finally,  that  if  you  are  in  a  little 
better  condition  than  your  enemy,  you  may 
last  a  few  extra  seconds  in  a  bayonet  fight. 
If  he  is  in  better  condition  than  you,  the 
words  "killed  in  action"  will  come  after  your 
name.  When  a  German  bullet  hits  you  is 
when  your  health  will  count. 


CHAPTER  V 

A   SUCCESSFUL   SOLDIER  — AS   THE 
SERGEANT   SEES   HIM 

A  FRANK  TALK  BY  SERGEANT  LYNCH 

WHEN  you  receive  orders  to  report  to  the 
training  camp  you  enter  upon  a  new  life. 
Most  likely  you  are  not  used  to  paying  un- 
questioned obedience  to  a  superior.  Neither 
are  you  used  to  life  in  barracks  with  all  kinds 
of  men.  During  a  long  experience  as  an  en- 
listed man  in  the  American  army  I  have  had 
to  face  that  sort  of  problem.  Now,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  man  in  the  ranks,  let  me 
give  you  a  few  tips.  They  will  make  life  easier 
for  you  at  the  start. 

Your  job  as  a  soldier  is  to  do  what  you  are 
told.  Even  to  the  smallest  detail  you  must 
learn  everything  that  is  taught  you.  You 
have  never  before  had  a  job  where  learning 


64         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

things  right  was  of  such  importance.  Some 
day  your  lack  of  knowledge  may  mean  that 
you  will  be  killed.  Not  only  that,  but 
through  your  ignorance  your  dearest  friend, 
your  "  bunkie,"  may  be  killed.  Your  failure  at 
a  critical  moment  may  even  cause  the  death 
of  many  of  your  company.  You  must  not  for- 
get that.  All  the  things  your  officers  or  non- 
coms,  tell  you  to  do  must  be  done,  because 
some  day  you  will  be  a  better  soldier  in  time 
of  necessity. 

Obedience  Even  if  at  the  time  you  receive  orders  they 
seem  to  you  foolish,  obey  them.  I  have 
watched  men  working  with  me  for  a  number 
of  years.  What  I  saw,  and  my  own  experience, 
have  proved  that  the  purpose  of  formations 
and  orders  we  did  not  understand  at  first 
always  became  clear  later. 

Then  the  men  who  had  taken  pains  to  learn 
the  early  formations  found  the  later  ones 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         65 

easy.  Those  who  had  scoffed  at  first  floun-  Obedience 
dered  along  helplessly,  'grumbling   because 
their  squad  advanced  so  slowly.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  it  was  held  back  solely  through  their 
stupidity  or  laziness. 

Try  to  get  on  with  your  superiors,  espe-  Regarding 
cially  with  your  non-coms.  They  will  be  ap-  *  *  '  s 
pointed  according  to  merit  from  men  like 
yourself.  Even  if  you  do  not  think  they  are 
the  best  possible,  remember  that  nobody  is 
infallible.  In  the  selection  of  officers  and  non- 
coms,  the  best  men  are  not  always  chosen, 
nor  is  the  poorest  left  behind.  As  a  general 
rule,  though,  good  men  get  promoted  quickly. 
When  you  are  given  orders  by  some  one 
placed  over  you,  the  best  way  is  to  obey 
cheerfully.  Do  it  even  if  you  think  he  should 
be  taking  orders  from  you.  To  use  an  Irish- 
ism :  "  If  you  find  you  cannot  do  it  cheerfully, 
well,  do  it  as  cheerfully  as  you  can." 


66         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Regarding  It  goes  without  saying  that  it  is  necessary 
to  have  officers  and  non-coms.  Knowing  this, 
it  is  up  to  you  and  me  to  do  the  best  we  know 
how  with  respect  to  them.  You  may  think 
that  a  certain  man  should  not  be  a  non-com, 
and  placed  over  men.  Perhaps  you  are  right. 
But  what  of  it?  He  is  a  non-com.,  and  you 
would  be  as  poor  a  soldier  as  he  is  a  non- 
com,  if  you  did  not  realize  the  conditions. 
Show  your  strength  in  contrast  to  his  weak- 
ness. 

You  will  find  it  hard,  and  in  many  instances 
galling,  to  knuckle  under  to  certain  types  of 
men.  Here  is  where  you  must  use  your  head. 
If  you  come  across  such  a  man,  that  is  your 
opportunity  to  show  your  will-power.  Make 
up  for  his  deficiencies. 

The  problem  of  getting  along  with  men  in 
camp  is  a  real  problem,  and  is  worth  a  good 
deal  of  study. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS        67 

When  some  superior  gives  you  an  order,  Orders 
keep  in  mind  two  things :  first,  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  that  orders  be  obeyed;  second, 
some  time  it  will  be  your  turn  to  give  orders. 
Therefore,  remembering  these  two  things, 
when  you  are  given  orders,  execute  them  to 
the  best  of  your  ability.  Obey  promptly  and 
cheerfully.  Should  you  ever  be  given  duty  to 
do  which  you  do  not  like,  go  ahead  and  per- 
form it  anyway.  Even  if  you  should  not  do 
it  by  rights,  because  it  is  not  your  time  or 
turn,  do  it  with  a  smile.  If  you  cannot  get 
redress  then  and  there,  you  can  later.  Time 
will  show  that  you  will  have  the  respect  of 
those  who  some  time  before  thought  very 
little  of  you. 

In  the  case  of  the  new  national  army,  our  In  the 
camp  is  not  a  great  number  of  tents,  put  up 
in  straight  lines,  with  company  streets  in  be- 
tween.   It  is  low  wooden  buildings,  laid  out 


68         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

In  the  like  a  large  town,  with  post-office,  restau- 
rants, telegraph  offices,  movie  theaters,  and 
other  such  public  places  as  you  would  find  in 
a  small  city.  You  will  be  assigned  to  one  of 
those  temporary  barracks  and  given  your 
government  issue.  This  includes,  besides 
clothing,  a  bed,  blankets,  sheets,  pillow,  and 
so  forth.  And  from  them  begins  your  new 
life. 

You  must  try  to  make  this  life  as  pleasant 
as  you  can,  both  for  yourself  and  your  com- 
rades. These  strangers  of  to-day  will  be  the 
men  to  assist  you  in  your  great  necessity  of 
to-morrow.  Be  as  good-natured  and  obliging 
to  them  as  you  would  be  to  people  in  your 
own  household.  Take  it  then  and  there  that 
this  is  your  home  now,  and  will  be  for  some 
little  time  to  come.  So,  for  your  own  sake, 
make  your  new  life  as  pleasant  as  possible. 
Be  pleasant  yourself,  and  it  will  be  reflected 
upon  you.  Even  if  you  know  that  some  men 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS        69 

are  holding  your  squad  back,  and  making  In  the 
things  harder  for  you,  don't  harbor  any  ill- 
feeling  toward  them.  Do  your  best  to  help 
them,  and  always  be  civil  toward  your  com- 
rades in  the  ranks.  Never  mind  if  you  don't 
like  some  of  them.  You  must  realize  that 
some  day  you  will  have  to  depend  on  them, 
and  they  will  have  to  depend  on  you  in  an 
emergency.  Unless  you  both  feel  kindly  to- 
ward each  other,  there  can  be  little  hope 
for  team  work.  We  must  have  that  in  the 
new  national  army  before  we  can  lick  the 
Germans. 

Personal  cleanliness  is  the  absolute  neces-  Cleanliness 
sity  of  soldier  life.  You  must  keep  clean  for 
the  benefit  and  protection  of  those  surround- 
ing you.  Therefore  see  to  it  that  you  shave 
regularly  every  day.  With  the  kind  of 
work  you  will  be  called  upon  to  do,  you 
should  also  bathe  as  often  as  possible.  Keep 


70         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Cleanliness  your  shoes  nicely  polished  and  your  clothes 
well  brushed,  so  that  you  may  always  look 
neat.  As  far  as  your  laundry  work  is  con- 
cerned, there  will  be  numbers  of  laundries  to 
do  it  for  you.  But  the  real  soldier  does  his 
own  laundry.  That  is  what  you  will  have  to 
do  in  France,  and  on  transports,  for  that 
matter.  Learn  to  do  it  yourself,  because  the 
day  will  come,  especially  at  the  front,  when 
there  will  be  no  one  to  do  it  for  you.  Now  is 
the  time,  and  the  national  camp  is  the  place 
to  learn  this  very  essential  art. 

Too  much  stress  cannot  be  laid  upon  per- 
sonal appearance.  On  that  alone  you  are 
sometimes  picked  for  a  better  position. 

Equipment  The  care  of  your  equipment  is  a  very  im- 
portant matter.  Certain  rules  are  laid  down 
by  the  authorities  for  the  treatment  of  the 
different  pieces  of  your  outfit.  Most  impor- 
tant of  all  these  articles  is  your  rifle.  Be  sure 


THE  MAN  IN,  THE  RANKS         71 

that  you  know  how  to  clean  and  treat  it.  Equipment 
Learn  which  oil  to  oil  it  with,  and  which  to 
use  in  treating  the  wooden  part.  Your  rifle  is 
an  all-important  thing.  Therefore  pay  par- 
ticular attention  while  you  are  being  in- 
structed in  its  care  and  use. 

When  it  comes  to  practice  with  your  rifle, 
don't  think  that  the  muscle  exercises  the  in- 
structor gives  you  are  silly.  Although  they 
may  look  simple  and  silly  to  you,  they  are 
very  important;  so  important  that  they  are 
constantly  used  by  trained  troops.  These 
exercises  have  been  adopted  by  the  army 
after  years  of  trial.  They  are  found  to  develop 
certain  muscles  which  help  to  keep  the  rifle 
steadier  in  your  hands. 

When  you  have  been  taught  for  some  time,  Patience 
don't  think  that  you  know  it  all,  and  get 
careless.  When  you  get  careless  comes  the  be- 
ginning of  your  end  as  far  as  further  advance- 


72         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Patience  ment  is  concerned.  When  it  comes  to  selec- 
tions for  some  other  branch  of  the  service  or 
some  place  you  really  want  to  go,  you  can't  be 
recommended  —  all  through  your  own  fault. 
Don't  get  discouraged  if  promotion  is  slow  at 
first.  Your  superiors  keep  a  constant  eye  on 
you.  No  matter  how  poor  or  weak  you  are  at 
anything,  if  you  honestly  try  to  do  your  best, 
you  will  be  appreciated  for  it. 

Marching  Marching  will  not  be  given  the  attention  it 
used  to  get  because  there  is  not  a  great  deal 
of  it  done  on  the  western  front.  Still,  it  will  be 
necessary  for  you  to  know  how  to  look  to 
yourself  both  on  the  march  and  when  the 
march  is  ended.  When  your  training  is  well 
advanced,  a  lot  of  your  time  will  be  taken  up 
in  route  marching.  The  chief  purpose  of  this 
will  be  to  harden  your  muscles.  It  also  ac- 
customs you  to  move  about  freely  with  your 
full  equipment.  The  British  army  found  that 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         73 

men  who  could  walk  thirty  miles  a  day  once  Marching 

a  week  were  able  to  stand  almost  anything. 

You  may  not  be  called  on  to  do  that.   But 

if  you  spend  four  days  in  the  trenches  and 

eight  out,  as  the  French  and  British  do,  you 

will  have  to  do  a  lot  of  hiking  with  your  full 

equipment. 

When  you  are  on  the  road,  be  sure  that 
your  field  service  outfit  fits  properly.  Do  not 
be  satisfied  that  as  long  as  it  is  on  your  back 
it  is  good  enough.  Loosen  or  pull  in  the  straps 
until  you  satisfy  yourself  or  some  critical  eye 
that  it  is  hanging  properly.  Get  it  evenly 
balanced  on  your  shoulders,  and  do  not  have 
your  belt  too  tight.  On  the  march  drink  as 
little  water  as  you  can.  The  more  you  drink 
the  more  you  want.  If  you  have  to  drink, 
avoid  getting  water  from  any  old  place. 
Get  it  only  from  the  water  wagon  supplied  by 
the  army.  Also  avoid  eating  fruit  on  the 
march. 


74         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Marching  These  are  a  few  very  simple  rules,  but  my 
experience  has  taught  me  the  value  of  them. 
The  few  hints  I  have  given  you  are  meant  to 
save  you  trouble.  Had  I  known  what  I  now 
tell  you,  I  might  have  avoided  a  great  deal  of 
it.  What  I  learned  took  a  long  time  and  was 
hard  learning.  Now  I  pass  it  along  to  you  in 
the  hope  that  it  will  make  you  a  better  man 
in  the  ranks,  a  pleasanter  comrade  to  your 
"bunkies,"  and  an  easier  man  for  me,  as  an 
instructor,  to  handle,  and  above  all  a  good 
soldier  of  the  United  States  of  America. 


CHAPTER  VI 

A   TALK  ON   PERSONAL   CONDUCT 

OUT  West  they  have  a  rule  of  conduct   Your 
pretty  suitable  for  a  soldier:  "So  conduct  ^  a 

yourself  each  day,  that  you  can  look  every  national 

affair 
damn  man  in  the  eye  and  tell  him  to  go  to 

hell."  Your  conduct  in  civilian  clothes  is  your 
private  affair.  As  soon  as  you  put  on  your 
uniform,  you  take  on  a  new  responsibility. 
Your  conduct  becomes  a  national  affair. 
Abroad  your  conduct  will  be  judged  as  the 
conduct  of  an  average  American.  See  that 
you  make  it  such  that  the  Nation  will  not  be 
ashamed  of  it.  Even  before  you  leave  here, 
you  will  find  people  willing  to  belittle  the  uni- 
form and  the  men  who  wear  it.  The  Socialists 
are  openly  working  against  the  army. '  So  are 
the  pacifists.  They  will  seize  on  anything 


76         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Your  you  do  to  show  how  harmful  the  army  is.  Un- 
^  a  fortunately  the  deeds  of  some  men  who  wear 
national  the  uniform  give  them  only  too  good  an  op- 

affair 

portumty.  If  you  are  a  patriotic  American, 
you  will  give  them  no  chance  to  point  scorn- 
fully at  you.  These  people  are  traitors  who 
have  placed  other  flags  before  the  one  that 
protects  them.  You,  as  a  soldier  of  the 
United  States,  should  remember  that  you  are 
the  representative  of  a  great  country.  The 
advice  of  Edward  Everett  Hale,  in  "A  Man 
Without  a  Country,"  might  have  been  writ- 
ten expressly  for  you:  — 

"And  for  your  country,  boy,  and  for  that 
flag,  never  dream  a  dream  but  of  serving  her 
as  she  bids  you,  though  the  service  carry  you 
through  a  thousand  hells.  No  matter  what 
happens  to  you,  no  matter  who  flatters  you 
or  who  abuses  you,  never  look  at  another  flag; 
never  let  a  night  pass  but  you  pray  God  to 
bless  that  flag.  Remember,  boy,  that  behind 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         77 

all  these  men  you  have  to  do  with,  behind   Your 
officers,  and  Government,  and  people  even,  is  a 
there  is  the  Country  Herself,  your  Country,  national 

affair 

and  that  you  belong  to  Her,  as  you  belong 
to  your  own  mother.  Stand  by  Her,  boy,  as 
you  would  stand  by  your  mother,  if  those 
devils  there  had  got  hold  of  her  to-day." 

Don't  allow  your  patriotism  to  give  you  Don't 
a  swelled  head.    From  the  first  day  you  are  ^J^ 
reviewed  till  you  finally  land  in  France,  you  head 
will  hear  very  little  but  praise.    The  news- 
papers will  write  glowing  accounts  of  you. 
Every  officer  who  makes  a  casual  inspection 
will  tell  you  how  well  trained  you  are.    Every 
mayor  and  congressman   and  politician  in 
the  country  will  tell  you  that  you  are  the  best 
troops  that  ever  landed  in  France.  But  take 
it  all  with  a  grain  of  salt.  Perhaps  you  are,  but 
keep  it  under  your  hat  till  you  have  proved 
it.   Once  the  London  papers  called  some  co- 
lonials "The  finest  body  of  men  that  has 


78  THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
Don't  landed  in  England  since  William  the  Con- 
swelled  queror."  Some  of  them  lost  their  heads  and 
believed  it.  They  believed  it  so  firmly  that 
they  gave  up  obeying  orders.  Finally,  they 
were  disbanded  and  distributed  among  other 
regiments.  In  the  new  regiments  they  told 
the  other  men  about  it,  and  received  such  a 
walloping  that  they  never  got  over  it.  This 
is  what  will  happen  to  you  unless  you  use  a 
little  horse  sense. 

Over  in  France,  the  people  are  prepared  to 
welcome  you  with  open  arms.  Already  they 
have  thronged  the  streets  to  yell  enthusiastic 
welcome  to  Pershing's  regulars.  Never  was 
the  feeling  so  cordial  between  France  and 
America.  Just  when  the  struggle  seemed  most 
hopeless,  the  United  States  entered  the  war. 
General  Pershing  went  to  France  with  his 
thousands  of  young  Americans  who  told  of  a 
million  to  come.  Don't  let  the  welcome  you 
get  in  France  turn  your  head.  Remember 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS          79 
that  you  are  not  the  only  one  who  has  come  Don't 
from  overseas.  IweUed 

The  colonials  in  France  are  looking  for-  head 
ward  to  your  coming.  You  are  young  like 
themselves.  You  talk  the  same  language  and 
think  the  same  thoughts.  If  they  find  you 
decent,  they  will  give  you  the  time  of  your 
life.  They  need  your  help,  and  are  willing  to 
help  you.  So  it  is  up  to  you  to  begin  right 
and  keep  it  up. 

These  colonials  have  been  fighting  for  three   There 
years.   Until  you  have  proved  yourselves  in 


action,  they  won't  like  any  insinuation  that  besides 

you  —  and 

YOU  are  going  to  win  the  war.   The  Cana-  they  've 


dians  who  retook  their  own  guns  at  Ypres,  ^^  yood 
and  the  men  who  took  Vimy  Ridge,  have 
their  own  ideas  as  to  who  are  the  best  sol- 
diers. The  Australians  and  New  Zealanders 
who  charged  the  Turks  at  Anzac,  with  no 
cartridges  in  their  magazines,  won't  believe 
you  are  their  superiors.  The  five  hundred 


80         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

There  Newfoundlanders  who  killed  fifteen  hundred 
'fighting*'  Germans  in  an  afternoon  with  the  bayonet 
besides  wjll  have  something  to  say  about  it,  too.  If 

you  —  and 

they  've        you  had  been  over  there  for  three  years  and 

'made  * * ood    ^^  ^°n6  a  ^  °^  ^^   %hting,   how  Would 

you  like  to  have  some  one  who  had  never 
been  under  fire  say  to  you,  "WE  are  going 
to  win  this  war."  So  wait  until  you  have 
done  something  before  you  begin  to  crow. 
Then  you  won't  want  to. 

In  addition  to  the  temptation  to  get  a 
swelled  head,  when  you  get  to  France  you 
will  be  up  against  two  more  temptations: 
wine,  and  women. 

Cut  Leaving  out  the  moral  side  altogether, 

°"booze"  "booze "and  women  are  poor  business.  The 
Allies  have  found  that  you  can't  win  a  war 
when  you  are  drunk.  The  Russians  have  cut 
out  vodka  entirely.  In  France  and  England 
they  hated  to  give  up  their  booze.  But  now 
they  are  passing  drastic  laws  to  limit  the  sale 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         81 

of  it.   Right  here  in  America  a  man  in  uni-  Cut 
form  cannot  get  a  drink.  «  booze  > 

In  the  first  part  of  the  war  the  British 
colonials  did  n't  care  how  drunk  a  man  got  if 
he  turned  up  all  right  on  parade.  That  was  in 
the  days  when  a  witness  at  a  court-martial 
testified  that  a  man  was  not  drunk  as  long  as 
he  could  move  his  right  foot.  Later  the 
colonials  found  that  the  habitual  drunkards 
could  stand  exposure  the  least  of  all  their 
men.  Also  their  wounds  took  a  good  deal 
longer  to  heal.  If  your  blood  is  full  of  alcohol, 
you  can't  survive  a  dangerous  wound. 

Even  now,  the  Allied  armies  supply  a  certain 
amount  of  alcohol  to  the  men  in  the  trenches. 
The  French  and  Italians  issue  wine  with 
meals,  and  the  British  issue  a  small  ration  of 
rum  twice  a  week.  But  don't  forget,  in  think- 
ing about  this,  that  the  ration  is  small.  It  has 
never  been  forced  on  any  soldier.  No  tee- 
totaler has  to  take  it.  Lots  of  men  in  the 


82  THE  MAN  -IN  THE  RANKS 
Cut  trenches  have  never  touched  it.  Those  who 
"booze"  nave  taken  it  have  found  it  helpful,  espe- 
cially when  they  were  wet  or  chilled.  Don't 
argue  from  this,  however,  that  because  a 
little  of  it  is  good  for  you,  a  lot  is  better. 
That  is  like  saying  that  because  a  little  salt 
is  good  on  oatmeal,  a  great  deal  of  salt  would 
be  much  better.  The  British  army  issues  a 
"tot"  of  rum  to  its  soldiers  just  before  a 
charge.  One  American  writer  unjustly  said 
that  this  was  given  them  to  "get  their  cour- 
age up,"  and  used  that  as  an  argument 
against  war.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  given 
them  in  their  canteens  to  carry  with  them 
when  they  charged.  They  were  to  use  it  as  a 
stimulant  if  they  were  unlucky  enough  to  be 
wounded.  But  after  a  man  had  been  in  two 
or  three  charges,  and  had  seen  a  number  of 
men  killed  almost  before  they  left  their  own 
trenches,  he  made  sure  of  his  rum  as  soon  as 
he  was  given  it. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         83 

The  doctor  of  the  First  Newfoundland  Cut 
Regiment  summed  up  the  situation  pretty  "iooze" 
well.  He  said:  "After  you  have  been  march- 
ing for  several  hours  and  are  hot,  and  dusty, 
and  thirsty,  there  is  nothing  so  good  for  you 
as  a  little  alcohol  [loud  cheers  from  the  booze- 
artists],  but  only  a  little,  and  that  little  you 
should  use  on  your  feet." 

Now  comes  the  second  problem  —  women.   The  kind 

of  woman 

As  far  as  you  are  concerned  there  are  three  to 
kinds  of  women  —  good,  bad,  and  foolish. 
Naturally,  if  you  are  a  decent  man  you  will 
seek  the  good  woman.  With  her,  of  course, 
you  will  have  to  be  decent,  or  she  will  drop 
you.  In  her  company  you  are  safe,  and  lucky. 
In  France  you  probably  won't  have  the  same 
chance  to  meet  nice  girls  that  you  have  at 
home.  Remember  that  with  the  bad  woman 
you  are  playing  with  fire.  Only  one  thing 
happens  to  those  who  play  with  fire.  Sooner 
or  later  they  get  burned. 


84         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

The  kind  And  while  you  are  being  laundered  in 
°to  avoid"  hospital  your  pay  will  be  stopped.  Worse 
than  this,  your  conduct  sheet  will  carry  a 
record  of  your  disease.  When  you  are  in 
hospital,  you  will  be  put  in  a  ward  full  of 
venereal  cases,  and  you  will  be  allowed  no 
visitors.  When  visiting  day  comes,  you  will 
have  to  watch  the  visitors  to  the  other  wards 
avoid  yours.  If  you  go  out  in  the  corridor, 
they  will  shun  you,  because  you  will  have  to 
wear  a  shirt  with  a  great  "V"  reaching  from 
shoulder  to  waist,  that  marks  you  as  a  ven- 
ereal patient.  You  will  have  to  spend  from 
six  to  eight  long,  lonesome  weeks  in  the  com- 
pany of  the  riff-raff  and  scum  of  your  own 
and  other  regiments,  and  forever  after  you 
will  be  branded  by  your  fellows. 


CHAPTER  VII 

TIPS  FROM  THE  TRENCHES 

AN  American  who  has  returned  from  Eu-  What 
rope  reports  that  nearly  fifty  thousand  Amer-  at  the 

icans    are   fighting    with    the    British    and  front 

have 
French.  The  men  at  the  front  have  discovered  found 

two  things.  They  have  found  just  how  val- 
uable their  training  has  been,  and  they  have 
learned  how  their  training  compares  with 
that  of  the  Germans.  They  have  found  that 
the  broad  principles  are  sound.  A  few  men 
who  were  only  a  short  time  at  the  front  had 
to  use  very  little  of  what  they  learned  in 
training.  All  they  did  was  to  form  in  a  sin- 
gle line  and  march  into  the  trenches.  They 
thought  that  this  was  all  that  was  needed. 
But  those  who  have  been  there  any  length 
of  time  feel  differently.  Sometimes,  when 


86         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

What       artillery  fire  caught  them  on  a  narrow  road 
a/J^f     in  close  formations,  they  congratulated  them- 

front      selves  on  having  learned  to  extend  quickly. 

have 

found  When  they  went  over  the  parapet  in  a  bayo- 
net charge,  they  were  glad  that  they  had  mas- 
tered the  signals.  They  were  glad,  too,  that 
they  had  learned  how  to  keep  their  proper 
intervals  in  open  order.  They  found  then 
that  the  bayonet  drill  they  had  learned  was 
not  foolish.  And  above  all,  they  were  glad, 
day  and  night,  that  they  had  learned  to  care 
for  their  rifles  and  to  shoot. 

All  Americans  back  from  the  front  have 
been  strong  for  paying  strict  attention  to  the 
details  of  training.  From  their  observation  of 
the  Germans'  tactics  they  have  found  that 
the  Allies'  system  is,  in  two  respects,  away 
ahead  of  that  of  the  Germans.  They  beat 
the  Germans  in  the  air,  and  in  shooting  with 
the  rifle.  As  soon  as  the  enemy  start  to  move 
and  are  driven  from  their  trenches,  all  the 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         87 

training  the  American  soldier  receives  will  be  What 
needed.  Then  he  can  use  what  he  has  learned  at  the 
about  rear-guard  and  advance-guard  work.  front 

have 

Every  night,  in  "No  Man's  Land"  between  found 
the  trenches,  a  line  of  outposts  extends  from 
the  Swiss  border  to  the  North  Sea.  But 
whether  the  Germans  are  in  trenches  or  on 
the  run,  the  American  will  find  the  most  use- 
ful part  of  his  training  is  marksmanship. 

The  Germans  don't  teach  their  men  to 
fire  at  distances  beyond  four  hundred  yards. 
They  consider  it  a  waste  of  ammunition. 
They  start  an  infantry  attack  with  the  idea 
of  getting  within  that  distance  of  an  enemy  The 
trench  before  opening  fire.  Therefore  the 

soldiers  don't  practice    judging    distances,   rifle 

fire 

This  is  done  only  by  officers.  The  Germans 
pay  no  attention  to  the  indication  of  targets, 
or  to  fire  direction  or  control  generally,  as 
the  British  do.  They  deem  it  a  waste  of  am- 
munition to  concentrate  the  fire  of  a  platoon 


88         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
The  or  company  on  one  spot  at  a  thousand  yards. 

idea  of       The  AUies  do  this  constantly  and  get  splen- 
rifle  did  results.     Rifle-training  in  the  German 

fire 

army  is  limited  to  independent  firing  by  bat- 
talions on  large  areas  of  ground.  When  the 
Germans  attack,  they  fire  from  the  hip,  with- 
out aiming  at  any  particular  object. 

Some  of  them  were  taught  rapid  firing,  and 
averaged  eight  or  nine  rounds  a  minute. 
But  against  the  British  this  was  pretty  poor. 
In  the  British  army,  before  a  man  is  allowed 
to  go  to  the  front  he  has  to  fire  fifteen  well- 
aimed  shots  a  minute.  Compared  with  this 
the  shooting  of  even  the  best  German  marks- 
man is  lamentable.  The  German  rifle  is  not 
as  good  as  the  short  Lee-Enfield  of  the  Brit- 
ish. The  straight  bolt  takes  longer  to  work 
than  the  British  bolt,  and  their  clip  of  car- 
tridges is  harder  to  get  in  than  the  British. 

The  greatest  surprise  the  Germans  received 
in  the  war  was  the  splendid  shooting  of  the 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         89 

British.    The  diagram  on  page  91  gives  a   The 
rough  idea  of  the  formations  used  by  the  infantry 
Germans  in  an  infantry  attack.    The  Ger-  attack 

formations 

mans  always  used  these  close  formations. 
Their  first  line  is  "cannon-fodder."  They 
look  upon  it  as  cover  for  the  second  and 
third  lines.  They  are  prepared  to  sacrifice 
the  entire  front  line  in  order  to  let  the  second 
and  third  lines  get  close  to  the  enemy.  Both 
ranks  of  each  line  are  close  together.  They 
go  ahead  until  their  third  line  is  stopped,  and 
then  dig  in  and  open  fire  with  their  machine- 
guns.  For  this  purpose  the  third  line  carries 
picks  and  shovels. 

They  counted  on  being  able  to  rush  the 
British  troops  by  weight  of  numbers,  but 
against  the  rapid  and  accurate  firing  of  the 
British  they  did  n't  have  a  chance.  They 
reckoned  on  their  third  line  with  its  machine- 
guns  being  able  to  get  within  four  hundred 
yards  of  the  enemy,  but  on  open  ground 


90         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
The  they  were  never  able  to  do  this.    Their  first 

infantry       ^nes  were  always  down  too  soon  —  some- 

atiack          times  at  eight  hundred  or  a  thousand  yards. 
formations 

Again,  on  the  Aisne  their  machine-guns  in 

the  third  line  came  under  concentrated  fire 
of  British  infantry  at  a  thousand  yards,  and 
although  they  suffered  heavily,  they  could 
not  reply,  because  the  British  were  too  well 
hidden.  Owing  to  the  tremendous  effect  of 
the  concentrated  British  fire,  the  Germans' 
plan  of  attack  has  failed  repeatedly.  Every 
time  they  attacked  they  lost  heavily. 

The  Germans  thought  nothing  could  be  as 
good  as  their  machine-guns.  They  neglected 
rifle  shooting  almost  entirely,  to  perfect  their 
machine-gun  batteries.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
machine-guns  are  practically  useless  beyond 
four  hundred  yards.  Against  well-aimed  con- 
centrated rifle  fire,  they  can  never  get  so 
near  as  that.  Therefore,  learn  to  shoot. 

In  the  winter  the  Germans  usually  attack 


I 


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11 


92  THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
German  about  three  in  the  afternoon,  or  at  dusk, 
Attack  an(*  then  entrench  during  the  night  within 
two  hundred  yards  of  our  lines.  They  also 
take  advantage  of  fog  in  the  early  morning. 
That  is  why  the  Allied  armies  always  stand 
to  arms  at  dawn  and  at  dusk.  Because  of 
this  watchfulness  the  Germans  have  found  it 
slow  work.  Their  rifle  shooting  is  so  poor  that 
they  haven't  a  chance  against  the  Allies. 
Their  fire  effect  comes  chiefly  from  machine- 
guns  and  artillery. 

Night  German  night  attacks  are  made  without 
scouts  or  advance  parties,  and  the  advance 
is  made  with  great  rapidity.  These  advances 
were  seldom  successful.  The  Allied  troops 
were  so  well  trained  in  rapid  firing  that  they 
could  open  a  well-aimed  burst  of  fire  at  a 
second's  notice.  So  long  as  this  can  be 
done,  there  is  little  chance  of  a  trench  being 
rushed. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         93 

When  you  attack,  don't  be  afraid  to  spread  In  an 
out.    Loose,  elastic  formations  are  the  best,  Sprea^ 
with  men  at  eight  to  ten  paces'  interval.    If  out 
you  have  charge  of  a  squad  in  an  attack,  re- 
member that  cover  from  view  is  more  impor- 
tant than  field  of  fire.   It  is  better  to  have  a 
field  of  fire  of  one  hundred  yards  and  be 
invisible,  than  to  have  one  of  six  hundred 
yards  and  be  an  easy  target  for  artillery. 

On  active  service  take  great  pains  to  see  Keep 
that  your  rifle  is  always  in  working  order.  r^e 
Make  sure  that  the  chamber  is  scrupulously  in  jtood 
clean.  If  it  is  dirty  it  is  hard  to  get  cartridges 
out.  Dirt  in  the  chamber  makes  them  stick. 
Cartridges  sometimes  rust  in  their  clips,  so 
you  should  move  them  about  once  a  week. 
Don't  keep  your  magazine  full  all  the  time. 
If  you  do  the  spring  will  weaken.    Test  the 
bolt  and  magazine  every  day. 

In  the  trenches  rifles  have  become  unser- 


94         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

Keep      viceable  from  mud.  It  gets  in  the  lock  when  the 
rijle        rifle  is  rested  on  the  wet  parapet  or  dropped 

m  good   on  wet  ground.  To  avoid  this,  cover  the  bolt 
order 

with  a  cloth  wrapper  or  an  old  sock.    Also 

place  some  canvas  against  the  parapet.  When 
you  use  the  rifle  pull  the  protecting  material 
back. 

Never  put  ammunition  on  the  ground. 
Have  a  little  box  or  tin  to  keep  it  in.  It  is  a 
good  plan  to  rub  the  ammunition  with  an 
oily  rag. 

Work         Two  on  and  four  off  is  the  rule  in  France. 

French  ^OU  ^et  tw*ce  as  mucn  rest  as  vou  £et  work. 
If  you  go  into  the  trenches  four  days,  you 
get  eight  in  dugouts.  In  the  trenches,  be- 
ginning about  an  hour  before  daylight,  you 
"Stand  to  Arms."  At  daylight  day  duties 
commence.  From  then  on  you  watch  through 
a  periscope  for  two  hours  and  rest  for  four. 
Then  you  go  on  sentry  duty  for  another  two 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         95 

hours,  and  so  on  all  through  the  day  and  Work 
night.  Get  all  the  sleep  you  can  in  the  day- 
time.  Sleep  your  full  four  hours.  In  the  night- 
time the  four-hour  periods  are  spent  in  do- 
ing fatigues.  You  will  have  to  go  back  for 
ammunition  and  for  supplies.  You  may  also 
have  to  carry  wounded  back  behind  the  lines. 
There  is  a  lot  of  digging  to  do,  too.  In  the 
daytime  you  will  be  able  to  sleep  because 
hardly  any  fatigue  work  is  done.  Moving 
about  in  the  daytime  is  dangerous,  because 
the  enemy's  artillery  is  so  busy.  When  you 
are  digging,  be  sure  to  build  some  kind  of 
head  cover,  if  you  can  do  it  without  making 
the  trench  too  conspicuous. 

In  building  a  shelter,  however,  don't  let 
your  desire  for  safety  choke  your  initiative. 
Your  object  is  to  drive  the  enemy  back.  You 
can't  do  that  by  staying  safe  in  a  trench. 
The  true  test  of  your  training  comes  when 
you  engage  the  enemy  with  the  bayonet.  On 


96          THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 
Work      the  following  pages  is  a  list  of  sixteen  things 
benches  to  rememker  which  will  help  you  to  prove 
yourself  then. 

But  added  to  what  you  learn  from  text- 
books and  instructors  will  be  your  natural 
American  resourcefulness.  To  spur  you  on 
always  you  will  have  the  knowledge  that 
behind  you  stands  the  whole  American  Na- 
tion, thinking,  planning,  inventing,  and  work- 
ing to  help  you  win.  The  thoughts  of  a  whole 
people  will  be  with  you;  proud  of  your 
prowess,  pitying  your  sufferings,  jubilant  at 
your  victories,  and  above  all  grateful  to  you 
for  the  sacrifices  you  are  making  in  their 
behalf. 


THINGS  TO  REMEMBER 
NOT  TO   FORGET 

(1)  REMEMBER:  Read  the  daily  orders 

as  soon  as  they  are 
posted. 

(2)  REMEMBER:  Learn  signaling;  it  will 

save  you  a  lot  of 
walking. 

(3)  REMEMBER:  What  you  add  to  your 

equipment  you  add 
to  the  weight  of  your 
pack. 

(4)  REMEMBER:  Your  dearest  friend  is 

your  rifle. 

(5)  REMEMBER:  When  you  shoot,  keep 

your  eye  on  the 
mark. 


98         THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS 

(6)  REMEMBER:  Don't    drink    on    the 

march. 

Don't  smoke  on  the 
march.  It  makes 
you  feel  thirsty. 

(7)  REMEMBER:  After  the  march  look 

to  your  feet. 

(8)  REMEMBER:  Most  stomach  trouble  is 

caused  by  poor  teeth. 

(9)  REMEMBER:  Don't  fool  about  the 

pass  word.  A  sentry 
will  shoot  first  and 
investigate  after- 
ward. 

(10)  REMEMBER:  Always  keep  your  gas- 
mask handy.  Don't 
use  it  for  a  fly-pro- 
tector. It's  better  to 
have  flies  on  your 
face  than  on  your 
corpse. 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  RANKS         99 

(11)  REMEMBER:  The  more  booze  your 
system  contains,  the 
less  chance  you  have 
to  recover  from  your 
wounds. 


REMEMBER:  Bathe  often.  If  you're 
clean  when  you're 
hit,  your  wound  will 
not  be  septic. 

(13)  REMEMBER:  Don't  ever  fire  from  a 

support  trench.  You 
may  hit  your  own 
firing  line. 

(14)  REMEMBER:  Rely  on  your  bayonet. 

The  Huns  hate  cold 
steel. 

(15)  REMEMBER:    Orders      MUST     be 

obeyed;  so»  do  it 
cheerfully. 

(16)  REMEMBER:  Be  patient;  Rome  was 

not  built  in  a  day. 


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ADDRESSES 


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CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .    S    .    A 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE 

STAMPED 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25 


WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


i."::  ' 

. 

. 

'81983 

• 

SENtONILL 

FTR  1  n  1995 

YB  0391 1" 


66- 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


